Friedrich Demmer (1785 – 15 April 1838) was an Austrian 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 ...

, actor and director and possibly the first Florestan in Beethoven's ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with ...

''.

Life

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Demmer was a son of Carl Demmer, who was active at the

Theater an der Wien The is a historic theatre in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district. Completed in 1801, the theatre has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music. Since 2006, it has served prima ...

from 1804. Already in 1807/08 a "son of Mr. Demmer" - most likely Friedrich Demmer - belonged to the ensemble of the Theater an der Wien. In 1821 he is listed in the Viennese list of artists by

Franz Heinrich Böckh Franz may refer to: People * Franz (given name) * Franz (surname) Places * Franz (crater), a lunar crater * Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada * Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see Fran ...

. In December 1824 the actor Carl Friedrich Müller published a ''Musikalisches Angebinde zum neuen Jahre'', "dedicated to his esteemed friend Mr. Friedrich Demmer, director of the "

", which also contains a work by

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

: the waltz in E-flat major WoO 84, written on 21 November 1824. Demmer was active at the theater in later years as a director. From September 1829 to 1834 he worked as a singer and then until his death as chief director of the Theater am Kärntnertor. On 15 April 1838, "Mr. Friedrich Demmer, director in the Imperial and Royal Court Theatre next to the Kärntnerthor, aged 52, died ". In a short obituary,

Ignaz Franz Castelli Ignaz Franz Castelli (6 March 1781 – 5 February 1862) was an Austrian dramatist born in Vienna. He studied law at the university, and then entered the government service. During the Napoleonic invasions his patriotism inspired him to wri ...

wrote: "Mr. Demmer was a capable actor, a brave musician, and capell master, an exemplary director and - a brave man." In retrospect, Ferdinand von Seyfried called him a "universal genius".Seyfried (1864),

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demmer, Friedrich Male singers from the Austrian Empire Male actors from the Austrian Empire Theatre directors from the Austrian Empire 1785 births 1838 deaths Singers from Berlin Emigrants from the Kingdom of Prussia to the Austrian Empire

Life

Further reading

References