Rudolf Brinkmann (29 December 1873 – 3 November 1927) was a German operatic
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 ...
.
Life
Brinkmann was born in
Elberfeld (today a district of
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
), the son of a pastry shop owner. At the age of 16, he began his training at the
Cologne Opera and Drama School with Paul Hoppe. After he was also taught by him in Hamburg, he went to
Heilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
From the late Mid ...
in 1895 and then to the German Opera in Amsterdam, which soon disbanded. In 1897, he was engaged at the
Oper Frankfurt and worked there until his early death in 1927.
Allegedly, he sang an almost unbelievable number of parts (between 300 and 500).
Brinkmann, who was attached to the ideas of
Freemasonry
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 ...
, was married with the opera
soubrette
A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice ''fach'', often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".
Theatre
In theatre, a soubrette is a c ...
Minnie Rau. He died at the age of 54 in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
.
Further reading
*
Ludwig Eisenberg Ludwig Eisenberg may refer to:
* Lale Sokolov (né Ludwig Eisenberg, 1916–2006), Austro-Hungarian-born Slovak-Australian businessman and Holocaust survivor
* Ludwig Eisenberg (writer) (1858–1910), Austrian writer and encyclopedist
{{hndis ...
: Rudolf Brinkmann. In ''Großes biographisches Lexikon der deutschen Bühne im XIX. Jahrhundert''.
Rudolf Brinkmann
in ''Großes biographisches Lexikon der deutschen Bühne im XIX. Jahrhundert''] in '' Paul List (publisher), Paul List publishing house, Leipzig 1903,
* Wilhelm Kosch: ''Deutsches Theater-Lexikon''. Biographisches und bibliographisches Handbuch. First volume. Klagenfurt / Vienna 1953,
External links
Rudolf Brinkmann
Stage portraits in the 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 ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brinkmann, Rudolf
German operatic baritones
20th-century German male opera singers
1873 births
1927 deaths
People from Elberfeld
Musicians from Wuppertal