Hermann Weigert (20 October 1890 in
Breslau – 2 April 1955 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) was a German vocal coach, pianist, and
conductor. He was a vocal coach and accompanist for the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
for thirteen years. Recognized as an authority on the works of
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 ...
, he served as a consultant to 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 ...
from 1951 until his death four years later. He was the husband, accompanist and, voice teacher of Swedish soprano
Astrid Varnay
Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (25 April 1918 – 4 September 2006) was a Swedish-born American dramatic soprano of Hungarian descent. She spent most of her career in the United States and Germany. She was one of the leading Wagnerian heroic sopranos ...
, whose career he managed to international success. He also served as accompanist and vocal coach for soprano
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casaz ...
for many years.
Life and career
Trained at the
Berlin Hochschule für Musik
The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...
, Weigert began his career working as a vocal coach at the
Magdeburg Opera and at
Theater Lübeck. He left those posts to join the conducting staff at the
Berlin State Opera
The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...
in 1920 where he worked with
Dimitri Mitropoulos
Dimitri Mitropoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; The dates 18 February 1896 and 1 March 1896 both appear in the literature. Many of Mitropoulos's early interviews and program notes gave 18 February. In his later interviews, howe ...
,
Otto Klemperer
Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...
,
George Szell
George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...
, and
Heinz Tietjen
Heinz Tietjen (24 June 1881 – 30 November 1967) was a German conductor and music producer born in Tangier, Morocco.
Biography
Tietjen was born in Tangier, Morocco. At age twenty-three, he held the position of producer at the Opera House in ...
.
While conducting in Berlin, he simultaneously worked as a professor at the
Royal Berlin Academy of Music
The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...
.
Due to his Jewish ancestry and the rise of the
Nazi party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
in Berlin, Weigert resigned from his post at the Berlin State Opera in 1934. After working for a brief period in South Africa, he joined the staff of the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
in New York City where he worked as the chief vocal coach and accompanist for the German repertoire. At the Met he became known as an expert on the works of
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 ...
, and became the primary vocal coach to sopranos
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casaz ...
and
Astrid Varnay
Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (25 April 1918 – 4 September 2006) was a Swedish-born American dramatic soprano of Hungarian descent. She spent most of her career in the United States and Germany. She was one of the leading Wagnerian heroic sopranos ...
; the latter of whom he married in 1944.
In 1948 Weigert left his post at the Met and returned to Europe with Flagstad and Varnay where he helped orchestrate a successful international launch to his wife's career, beginning with the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...
in London. In 1951 Varnay made an acclaimed debut at the Bayreuth Festival where she appeared annually for the next seventeen years. Weigert served on the musical staff of the Bayreuth Festival from 1951 to 1955.
In addition to managing his wife's career, Weigert worked as a guest conductor at numerous German opera houses from 1948 to 1955; including conducting several performances with his wife in the cast. He notably conducted recordings of his wife portraying the roles of Isolde in ''
Tristan and Isolde
Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...
'', the title role in ''
Salome
Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...
'', and Brünnhilde in ''
Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as p ...
''; the latter of which won the
Grand Prix du Disque
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and commu ...
.
Weigert died of a heart attack at the age of 65 in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weigert, Hermann
1890 births
1955 deaths
German male conductors (music)
Vocal coaches
Academic staff of the Berlin University of the Arts
Musicians from Wrocław
Musicians from Berlin
20th-century German conductors (music)
20th-century German male musicians
German emigrants to the United States