Gertrude Förstel (21 December 1880 – 7 June 1950) was a German operatic dramatic soprano and an academic voice teacher. She performed the soprano solo in Mahler's Fourth Symphony internationally, and participated in the premieres of Eugen d'Albert's '' Tiefland'' and Mahler's Eighth Symphony.

Career

Born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

the daughter of a member of the

Gewandhausorchester The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

, she was supposed to be a pianist, studied piano at the

Leipzig Conservatory The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...

and made her debut in 1897 in

Werdau Werdau () is a town in Germany, part of the Landkreis Zwickau in Saxony. It is situated on the river Pleiße, 8 km from Zwickau. The town was mentioned as early as 1304, and in 1398 it was purchased by Frederick, then margrave of Meissen, ...

Angelo Neumann Josef Angelo Neumann (18 August 1838 – 20 December 1910) was a German operatic baritone and theater director. First a baritone at major opera houses in Europe, including the Vienna Imperial Opera, he was the managing director of the Leipzig O ...

noticed her voice, and he supported her studies in Berlin with Bertha Niklas-Kempner and in Dresden with

Aglaja Orgeni Aglaja Orgeni (born Anna Maria von Görger St Jörgen; 17 December 1841 – 15 March 1926), was a Hungarian coloratura soprano.Forbes, Elizabeth (1992). "Orgeni, Aglaja" in Sadie 3: 752. Biography Orgeni was born in Rimászombat, Galicia (n ...

. She made her operatic debut at the Deutsches Theater Prag, which Neumann directed, on 1 September 1900 as Amina in Bellini's '' Die Nachtwandlerin''. She performed the part of Nuri in the premiere of Eugen d'Albert's '' Tiefland'' there on 15 November 1903. On 11 April 1905 she appeared as a guest at the Wiener Hofoper as Sulamith in Karl Goldmark's ''

Die Königin von Saba ' (''The Queen of Sheba'') is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings (l ...

'', where she was then engaged as member from 1906 to 1912. She appeared as Sophie in ''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...

'' by Richard Strauss when the opera was staged in Vienna for the first time in 1911. From 1904 to 1912, she performed several times at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

, in parts such as Waldvogel in ''

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

'', and Woglinde in ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''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 '' Nibe ...

'', among others. In concert, she participated in 1910 in the premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Her performance of the soprano solo in Mahler's Fourth Symphony, delivered also in Paris, has been regarded as one of her best achievements. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher at the

Musikhochschule Köln A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

. One of her students was

Ilse Hollweg Ilse Hollweg (23 February 1922 – 9 February 1990) was a German operatic coloratura soprano. A member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, she appeared at major European opera houses and festivals including the Bayreuth Festival and the Glyndebourne F ...

. Förstel died in

Bad Godesberg Bad Godesberg ( ksh, Bad Jodesbersch) is a borough ('' Stadtbezirk'') of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 to 1999, while Bonn was the capital of West Germany, most foreign embassies were in Bad Godesberg. Some buildings ar ...

, Germany.

References

Literature

* Ludwig Eisenberg : ''Großes biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Bühne im XIX. Jahrhundert.'' Verlag von

Paul List Pawel M. List ( he, פאול ליסט, russian: Павел Лист; Odessa, 9 September 1887 – London? 1954) was a Russian Jewish chess player, who emigrated to Britain in 1937 but never took British citizenship. He was born in Odessa, Ukr ...

, Leipzig 1903, p. 267f.

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Gertrud Förstel
image in Collection Manskopf of the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

Förstel, Gertrude (1880–1950), Sängerin
epub.oeaw.ac.at {{DEFAULTSORT:Forstel, Gertrud German operatic sopranos 1880 births 1950 deaths Musicians from Leipzig University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni 20th-century German women opera singers Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln