Vilhelm Christoffer Herold (born March 19, 1865, in
Hasle,
Bornholm
Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland.
Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...
– died December 15, 1937, in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
) was an
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
tic
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...
, voice teacher, and theatre director. Herold created the role of David in
Carl Nielsen's opera ''
Saul og David'' in 1902).
Career
Herold he made his stage debut on February 10, 1893, in the title role of
Gounod's ''
Faust'' at the
Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. However, he also sang throughout Europe, including a command performance for
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
at
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
in 1905. The previous year, he had made his
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
debut in the title role of ''
Lohengrin''. He also sang at the
1893 World's Fair
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
Herold was a prominent interpreter of Pedro in
Eugen d'Albert's ''
Tiefland'' during the years following its premiere, with the composer himself pronouncing him as ideal in the role. ("Sie sind das Ideal eines Pedro.") He also sang Pedro in the 1913 Oslo performance of ''Tiefland'' which marked
Kirsten Flagstad's stage debut.
[Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J., 1979] It was in ''Tiefland'' that Herold made his final appearance on the opera stage on March 19, 1915, his 50th birthday. However, he has left no recordings from this work.
Upon his retirement from the stage, Herold worked primarily as a voice and drama teacher at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, where he trained a generation of Danish singers, including
Lauritz Melchior. From 1922 to 1924 he was also a director at the Royal Theatre, where he staged ''
Louise
Louise or Luise may refer to:
* Louise (given name)
Arts Songs
* "Louise" (Bonnie Tyler song), 2005
* "Louise" (The Human League song), 1984
* "Louise" (Jett Rebel song), 2013
* "Louise" (Maurice Chevalier song), 1929
*"Louise", by Clan of ...
'' and ''
Boris Godunov
Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...
''.
A prolific recording artist, Herold's published discography numbers 135 titles. Extracts from some of those titles have been transferred from records in the collection of Denmark's State and University Library to the
Nimbus CD ''Prima Voce: Vilhelm Herold'' (NI7880).
Sculptor
Herold was also active as a sculptor. He mainly created portrait busts of friends and family. His first work, a bust of actor Otto Zinck, was acquired by the
Danish National Gallery
The National Gallery of Denmark ( da, Statens Museum for Kunst, also known as "SMK", literally State Museum for Art) is the Danish national gallery, located in the centre of Copenhagen.
The museum collects, registers, maintains, researches and han ...
.
Notes and references
Carl Nielsen SocietyAccessed 28 April 2007.
* Hein, M., 1996
for ''Prima Voce: Vilhelm Herold'', Nimbus Records NI7880. Archived fro
on 11 August 2007.
Herold's grave in the Hasle Kirke cemeteryAccessed 29 April 2007.
* Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J., 1979, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press p. 227
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herold, Vilhelm
1865 births
1937 deaths
People from Bornholm
Singers from Copenhagen
Danish operatic tenors
19th-century Danish male opera singers