Karl Scheidemantel (29 January 1859 – 26 June 1923) was a German

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

singer, and later an opera director. Scheidemantel Brustbild jung

Life and career

Born in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, the son of a Weimar court artist, Scheidemantel found great success in various roles in the operas 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 ...

. Among his supporters were Bodo Borchers in Weimar, well known voice teacher

Julius Stockhausen The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician (ancient Rome), patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Roman Republic, Republic ...

in Frankfurt, and composer

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. At the age of 25, he joined the ensemble of the Dresden Hofoper where he was named

Kammersänger Kammersänger (male) or Kammersängerin (female), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music. It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was bestowed by princes or ...

, "Chamber Singer to the Saxon Grand Duke" in 1884. He sang at the 1886, 1888, 1891, and 1892

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 ...

s. He frequently corresponded with

Cosima Wagner Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner ( née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German co ...

about the happenings of the stage. He then sang at most of the great European opera houses, especially the Vienna State Opera, where in April and May 1890 he sang the rolls of Heiling, Renato, Zampa, Wolfram, Luna and, Sachs. He was a guest singer at La Scala in 1892. His closest friend was singer Karl Perron. He married Hedwig Lehnert in June 1897 at the Dresden Annankirche. His final career appearance was on 8 June 1911 as Hans Sachs. Scheidemantel sang over 170 roles in his career. Notably, he created the role of ''Herr von Faninal'' in

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

's ''

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'' ...

'' in 1911. His German singing translation of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'' was widely used. It was first used in his own new production at Dresden in June 1914, in which

Richard Tauber Richard Tauber (16 May 1891 – 8 January 1948) was an Austrian tenor and film actor. Early life Richard Tauber was born in Linz, Austria, to Elisabeth Seifferth (née Denemy), a widow and an actress who played soubrette roles at the local theat ...

first sang Don Ottavio. He also edited a song anthology for music publisher Eulenberg. After his stage career he returned to Weimar where he taught singing. His students included

Hermann Uhde Hermann Uhde (July 20, 1914 – October 10, 1965) was a German Wagnerian bass-baritone. He was born in Bremen and died on stage of a heart attack during a performance in Copenhagen. He studied in his hometown, where he gave his début in 1936. Du ...

and

Herbert Heyner Herbert Heyner (26 June 188218 January 1954) was a noted English baritone. Heyner appeared in a handful of operas, and a number of broadcast operas, but his stage appearances were predominantly in oratorio and songs. He sang in some notable pe ...

. He returned to Dresden as director of the Dresden Opera in from 1920-1922. Scheidemantel is buried in Dresden-Tolkewitz. Dresden named a road in his honor.

Publications

* Scheidemantel, Karl (Herausgeber): ''Meisterweisen, Lieder und Gesänge aus alter und neuer Zeit'', Ernst Eulenburg Leipzig, 1913, 2 vol. * Scheidemantel, Karl: ''Stimmbildung''. * Scheidemantel, Karl: ''Gesangbildung''. * He translated Mozarts ''

''. * ''Pechvogel und Lachtaube'', text Karl Scheidemantel, music

Georg Pittrich George Washington Pittrich (22 February 1870 – 17 March 1934) was a German composer and ''Kapellmeister''. Life Born in Dresden, Pittrich attended the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber from 1884 to 1890, whose curriculum included theo ...

Literature

* Paul Trede: ''Karl Scheidemantel'', Carl Reißner, Dresden 1911.

External links

*
Karl Scheidemantel
images, library 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 ...

information and photos of Karl Scheidemantel, (in German)

MGG online (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheidemantel, Karl 1859 births 1926 deaths German operatic baritones Opera managers German music educators Voice teachers Musicians from Weimar 19th-century German male opera singers