Eduard Bachmann (22 September 1831 – 18 April 1880) was a German

oboist An oboist (formerly hautboist) is a musician who plays the oboe or any oboe family instrument, including the oboe d'amore, cor anglais or English horn, bass oboe and piccolo oboe or oboe musette. The following is a list of notable past and pres ...

, operatic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

Life and career

Born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Bachmann attended the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

, where he studied oboe playing under the direction of Professor Bauer. As a trained oboist he undertook a concert tour through Germany with the music director Joseph Labitzky in 1849, was engaged in the theatre orchestra of

Preßburg Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...

in 1850/51, then went to Dresden, where he was engaged in the military band of the Saxon Life Guards. In 1853 he became a member of the orchestra of Johann Strauss I. One year later he was engaged for the orchestra of the Hungarian National Theatre in

Pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...

. There he began to train as a singer. On 14 February 1855 he made his debut at the Hungarian National Theatre as "Carlo" in the opera ''

Ernani ''Ernani'' is an operatic ''dramma lirico'' in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the 1830 play ''Hernani (drama), Hernani'' by Victor Hugo. Verdi was commissioned by the Teatro La Fenice in V ...

''. He sang several times in the Hungarian and German theaters and worked from December 1855 to March 1856 at the Darmstadt court theater. After that he went to Agram and worked as a Heldentenor in Amsterdam from October 1856 to June 1857. On 31 July 1857 he made his debut in Prague with director

Franz Thomé Franz Thomé (21 November 1807 – 22 Mai 1872) was an Austrian theater director and actor. Life Born in Vienna, Thomé was the son of an official of the Russian Ambassador in Vienna, Prince Andrey Razumovsky. After his father's death his mot ...

, where he stayed until October 1864. In the same year he accepted a lifelong engagement at the Hoftheater in Kassel, which was dissolved after the death of the elector in 1867. From 1867 to 1868 he worked at the Hoftheater Dresden, from 1868 to 1871 at the Hoftheater Munich, after interventions from even the king and

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

to get the artist released from his Dresden contract. It was also Wagner's idea to use him as Siegfried in his ''

Ring cycle (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

'', but he rejected these plans. He fell ill with diphtheria twice, and his voice deteriorated. He retired from the stage in 1870 at the age of only 39. He moved to

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It lies on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. ...

where in 1873 he took over the direction of the theatre for two years. Bachmann died by suicide on 18 April 1880 in Karlsbad at age 48.

External links

Bachmann, Eduard
on University of Munich
Bachmann Eduard
on Operissimo {{DEFAULTSORT:Bachmann, Eduard 1831 births 1880 deaths Musicians from Prague Prague Conservatory alumni German oboists German operatic tenors Heldentenors German theatre directors 19th-century German male opera singers 1880s suicides

Life and career

Further reading

External links