Georg Fritz Weiß (5 February 1822 – 14 March 1893) was a German operatic bass, actor as well as translator. Other names are Georg Fritz Weiss, Georg Weiß, Georg Weiss, Fritz Weiß and Fritz Weiss.

Life and career

Born in

Ehrenfriedersdorf Ehrenfriedersdorf () is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 8 km northwest of Annaberg-Buchholz, and 21 km south of Chemnitz. Theatre At the start of the 1990s the folk theatre, the ''Mundartth ...

, Weiß received his vocal training during his school years at the

Thomasschule zu Leipzig St. Thomas School, Leipzig (german: Thomasschule zu Leipzig; la, Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest schools i ...

in the

Thomanerchor The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called ''Thomaner'', reside in a boarding scho ...

. In addition to

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

, he practised his musical skills in the university choral society. From the winter of 1845/46 he was a member of the Gesamtverzeichnis der Pauliner vom Sommer 1822 bis Sommer 1938.
Leipzig 1938, . (today . On the occasion of a trip to Dresden in 1849, he met the director of the Dresden Court Theatre, who engaged him for small roles and entrusted his further vocal training to Barbieri. Engagements took him to Görlitz, Königsberg, Kassel, Brünn, Stralsund and Rostock; his engagement to St. Petersburg in 1857 fell through, whereupon Weiß returned to Dresden. Here he was entrusted with the role of First Speaker for ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...

''. At the

Königliches Hoftheater Dresden The Königliches Hoftheater (Royal Court Theatre) in Dresden, Saxony, was a theatre for opera and drama in the royal seat of the Kingdom of Saxony from 1841 and 1869, designed by Gottfried Semper. It was the predecessor of today's Semperoper, ...

he was to remain an ensemble member as Royal Court Opera SingerDresdner Geschichtsblätter, No. 3, 1893, . and actor throughout the rest of his artistic life. Weiß, who became a

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

in 1865, retired to where he died at the age of 71. Alongside his artistic career, Weiß had always pursued his field of interest in philology. He translated the "Attic Nights" ''( Noctes Atticae)'' of

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...

, which appeared in 1875/1876 and for which he received the appointment of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig. In this context, Weiß also produced the ''Index Gellianus''. Further translations of late Latin writers followed. After the translation of ''The Golden Ass'' (''Metamorphoses'') by Apuleius of Madauros, he could only dictate the "Apology" to his wife in the pen, the work appeared posthumously in 1894. Weiß was buried at the Dresden .

Work

: ''Die attischen Nächte''. 2 volumes, 1875–1876, Nachdruck WBG, Darmstadt 1981 (einzige deutsche Gesamtübersetzun
Numerized
.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Georg Fritz German operatic basses German male stage actors German Freemasons 1822 births 1893 deaths People from Erzgebirgskreis 19th-century German male opera singers

Life and career

Work

Further reading

References

External links