Werner Enders (11 March 1924 – 1 December 2005) was a German operatic

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 ...

and member of the Komische Oper Berlin.

Life and career

Born in

Beiersdorf Beiersdorf AG is a German multinational company that manufactures and retails personal-care products and pressure-sensitive adhesives. Its brands include Elastoplast, Eucerin (makers of Aquaphor), Labello, La Prairie, Nivea, Tesa SE (Tesa t ...

, Enders attended the music school of

Radebeul Radebeul ( hsb, Radobyle) is a town (''große Kreisstadt'') in the Elbe valley in the district of Meißen (district), Meißen in Saxony, Germany, a suburb of Dresden. It is well known for its viticulture, a museum dedicated to writer Karl May ...

and then studied

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...

and Berlin. In 1941/42 he helped as second violinist at the

Semperoper The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the ...

Dresden. During the war he suffered a paralysis of his left hand, which made it impossible for him to continue playing the violin. From 1945 he therefore played drums and from 1947 he was a choir singer in Zwickau, since he had also received singing training. Two years later he went to the

Landestheater Altenburg The Landestheater Altenburg is a multi-partstheatre in Altenburg and part of the . The venues used are the Großes Haus with 500 seats as well as the ''Heizhaus'' and the ''Theater unterm Dach''. The general director and managing director sinc ...

where he worked as a soloist for four years. Later he was at the Landestheater

Halle (Saale) Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...

and belonged together with Philine Fischer,

Margarete Herzberg Margarete Herzberg (10 February 1921 – 29 March 2007) was a German operatic mezzo-soprano. Life Born in Osnabrück, Herzberg studied singing at the Leipzig Conservatory with Gertrud Bartsch. The mezzosoprano belonged to the ensemble of the ...

Günther Leib Günther Leib (born 12 April 1927) is a German operatic baritone and professor of voice. A Kammersänger of the Dresden State Opera, he sang leading baritone roles both in his native Germany and internationally during the course of his stage c ...

, Hellmuth Kaphahn,

Kurt Hübenthal Kurt Hübenthal (30 November 1918 – 13 March 2007) was a German operatic bass baritone, director and music teacher. He was professor for singing at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar. Life Hübenthal was born in 1918 as one of two ...

and others to the ensemble of the

Handel Festival, Halle The Handel Festival (in German: Händel-Festspiele) in Halle an der Saale, Saxony-Anhalt, is an international music festival concentrating on the music of George Frideric Handel in the composer's birthplace. It was founded in 1922 and it grew into ...

. In 1955 Enders was engaged by the Komische Oper Berlin. There he was a member of the ensemble from 1957 and then denoted as Kammersänger, from 1993 he was an honorary member. " Walter Felsenstein discovered the young tenor by chance in Halle and was so convinced of his creation of a women's role in ''

Il Campiello ''Il campiello'' (''The Little Square'') is an opera in three acts by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari. The libretto was by Mario Ghisalberti, after the famous comedy of the same name written for the 1756 Venetian Carnival by the great Venetian playwright, C ...

'' that he brought him to the comic opera together with the director and stage designer," was tribute paid by the Komische Oper to him on his death.

Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnen-Angehöriger The Guild of the German Stage (''Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnen-Angehöriger'', or GDBA) is the guild for people who work on the legitimate stage. Its members come from both the areas of stagecraft and artistic workers in theaters from all over G ...

(editor), ''Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 2007'', Verlag Bühnenschriften-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, 2007, Enders appeared in 61 productions by Walter Felsenstein,

Joachim Herz Joachim Herz (15 June 1924 – 18 October 2010) was a German Opera director and manager. He learned at the Komische Oper Berlin as an assistant to Walter Felsenstein. His major stations were the Leipzig Opera where he opened the new house with Wa ...

Götz Friedrich Götz Friedrich (4 August 1930 in Naumburg, Germany – 12 December 2000 in Berlin, Germany) was a German opera and theatre director. He was a student and assistant of Walter Felsenstein at the Komische Oper Berlin in (East) Berlin, where he we ...

and

Harry Kupfer Harry Alfred Robert Kupfer (12 August 1935 – 30 December 2019) was a German opera director and academic. A long-time director at the Komische Oper Berlin, he worked at major opera houses and at festivals internationally. Trained by Walter Felse ...

on stage, including King Bobèche in Offenbach's '' Bluebeard'' (which he played for 29 years) and a double role in Janáček's '' The Cunning Little Vixen''. He was also one of the soloists who sang in the world premiere of the opera ''Das Land Bum-Bum'' composed by

Georg Katzer Georg Katzer (; 10 January 1935 – 7 May 2019) was a German composer and teacher. The last master student of Hanns Eisler, he composed music in many genres, including works for the stage. Katzer was one of the pioneers of electronic new music ...

with a libretto by

Rainer Kirsch Rainer Kirsch (17 July 1934 – 4 September 2015) was a German writer and poet. Life and career Kirsch was born in Döbeln in 1934. After graduating from high school, he studied history at the Klosterschule Roßleben and philosophy at the Marti ...

at the Komische Oper, a piece critical of the East German communist regime. Enders died in Berlin at age 81.

Awards

* 1956: First

Handel Prize The Handel Prize (german: Händel-Preis) is an annual award, instituted in 1956, which is presented by the city of Halle, in Germany, in honour of the celebrated Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. It is awarded, "for exceptional artistic, ...

* 1962: National Prize of the German Democratic Republic

Theatre

* 1968: Hans Werner Henze: '' Der junge Lord'' (Lord Barrat) – direction:

( Komische Oper Berlin)

References

External links

Werner Enders
on Operissimo
Gratulationsdefilee für Bobéche, den König der Komödianten. Zum 80. Geburtstag
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Enders, Werner 1924 births 2005 deaths Musicians from Saxony German operatic tenors 20th-century German male opera singers Handel Prize winners People from Görlitz (district)

Life and career

Awards

Theatre

References

Further reading

External links