TESTAMENT

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efused. In 1956 Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner had holes bored and slits made in the cowl but admitted to the press after the opening night of Parsifal that they had failed: ‘1-0 to Richard Wagner and his Festspielhaus’, commented Wolfgang. A request for similar action was made by Solti (and refused) during his only appearance at the Festival in 1983. Small adjustments (not affecting the visibility of the orchestra) were made later, however, at the request of Daniel Barenboim. In 1951 Herbert von Karajan (and Walter Legge, who was recording his performances for Columbia/EMI) started to reseat the orchestra along more conventional lines (the effects of this can be heard on their Meistersinger recording). Although this appeared not to be a success, Karajan went even further next year for his Tristan performances but, as late as after the general rehearsal, yielded to persuasion from orchestra members and the Wagner grandsons to return to Richard Wagner’s original plan. Note: the rushing sound that can be heard on this performance during the descent to and return from Nibelheim may come from the Mixtur-Trautonium, an electronic instrument designed by Oskar Sala for the composer Carl Orff and, at the latter’s suggestion, used at Bayreuth in this and subsequent years to simulate the offstage musical effects of the Rheingold anvils and the Parsifal bells. � Mike Ashman, 2006 THE SINGERS Hans Hotter (Wotan) was born on 19 January 1909 in Offenbach am Main, Germany. He studied with Matthäus Römer in Munich and worked as an organist and choirmaster before making his opera début at Troppau in 1930 as the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte. After singing with the companies in Breslau and Prague, he joined the Hamburg Opera in 1934 and then moved to the Munich Opera in 1937. There he built up his repertoire of Wagnerian roles and appeared in the world première of Friedenstag by Richard Strauss in 1938. Four years later he was in another Strauss première, that of Capriccio, as Olivier, and what should have been his third creation, Jupiter in Die Liebe der Danae at the 1944 Salzburg Festival, went unrealised when Hitler ordered all theatres to be closed, though the dress rehearsal did take place. Hotter had previously made his Salzburg début in 1942 as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. His international career had begun in 1939 when he sang the Wanderer at La Scala, but the war prevented further excursions. When peace returned, he sang Don Giovanni and Almaviva at Covent Garden <strong>TESTAMENT</strong> booklet note English during the Vienna State Opera’s visit in 1947. He was heard in Wagner at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1948 and the Metropolitan in New York in 1950 and continued to extend his international career with marked success. He was also a regular visitor to Bayreuth, where he sang between 1952 and 1966 and his Wagner portrayals could be seen in many important houses and festivals. He sang regularly at Covent Garden from 1947 until 1963. His concert career flourished too, with Lieder recitals an important part of his musical activities. For more than 20 years, Hotter also undertook some opera production. He produced the Ring cycle at Covent Garden in the 1960s, and was responsible for other productions in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich and Dortmund. Most of these were of Wagner operas, but there were some others, and his final production, in Chicago in 1981, was Fidelio. Late in his career, Hotter was also lauded for his interpretation of Moses in Schoenberg’s opera Moses und Aron. He officially retired from the stage in Vienna in 1972 in the role of the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi’s Don Carlo. After his retirement, he still occasionally appeared in small parts. His performance of Schigolch in Berg’s Lulu at San Francisco in 1989 and again in Paris in 1991 received particular critical acclaim, and just after his 80th birthday he was the Speaker in two performances of Gurrelieder at the Royal Festival Hall in London. He died in Munich on 8 December 2003. Georgine von Milinkovič (Fricka) was born to Croatian parents in Prague on 7 July 1913 and died in Munich on 26 February 1986. She studied in Zagreb and Vienna prior to making her début in 1937 in Zurich, and she moved on the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1940. In 1941, she caused a sensation as Kundry in a Dutch Radio performance of Parsifal. Following the war, she sang at the Prague Opera for three years and expanded her career throughout Europe. She appeared at many of the major festivals including Bayreuth, Salzburg, Holland and Edinburgh. She was also a favourite at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Vienna State Opera. She remained on the roster of both the Bavarian and Vienna State Opera companies until 1968. Rudolf Lustig (Loge) was born in 1902 in Vienna, where he studied with Hermine Geyer prior to beginning his career in 1933 at the National Theatre in Weimar in the title role in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Following the war, he moved on to heavier dramatic parts in performances spanning the globe, often appearing with the major stars of the day, including Birgit Nilsson, to whose Isolde he was a frequent Tristan. He also made several appearances with his wife,
soprano Anna Palo, who was a member of the opera company in Aachen, where he finally settled for the remainder of his long life. He died in Vienna in October 1988. Gustav Neidlinger (Alberich) was born on 21 March 1910 in Mainz. After studying under Otto Rottsieper at the Frankfurt Conserv-atoire, he made his début in 1931 in Mainz, where he remained until 1934. After singing in Plauen in 1934 and 1935 he became a member of the Hamburg Opera from 1936 until 1950 and then moved to Stuttgart. He also sang frequently in Vienna from 1956 and also appeared occasionally at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Paris Opéra, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Metropolitan in New York, where he performed only in the 1972 season as Alberich in Siegfried. He first sang at Bayreuth in 1952 and continued to appear there until 1975 as Kurwenal, Klingsor, Telramund, Hans Sachs and, most notably, Alberich. He retired in 1977 and died on 26 December 1991 in Bad Ems. Paul Kuen (Mime) was a native of the Southern Bavarian Allgäu region, where he was born on 8 April 1910 in Sulzberg, near Kempten. He originally wanted to be an organ builder, but ultimately began vocal studies in Munich with Heinrich Knote and Adalbert Ebner. He made his début in Konstanz in 1933, and this launched him on a successful career that took him all over the world singing character tenor roles in the leading theatres of Europe and the Americas. He later turned to teaching and among his pupils was the well-known Lieder singer Christian Gerhaher. He died in 1997. Toni Blankenheim (Donner) was born on 12 December 1921 in Cologne and studied with Paul Lohmann in Frankfurt and Res Fischer in Stuttgart. He made his début as Mozart’s Figaro in Frankfurt, where he was on the roster from 1947 to 1950. He then moved to Hamburg, where he was a well-known name for many years as well as a stalwart member of the Bayreuth Festival ensemble, taking on a large array of assignments ranging from smaller character parts to Klingsor in Parsifal and Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger. He also made a speciality of contemporary opera, and figured in world premières and first German performances of works by Henze, Martinu°, Searle and Krˇenek, to name only the most important composers. In the first German performance of Kalevi Aho’s Der Geburtstag, he sang the only role in the work, which kept him uninterruptedly on the stage of the Hamburg State Opera in every performance for well over two hours. Blankenheim also enjoyed an international <strong>TESTAMENT</strong> booklet note English career with guest appearances at La Scala, Milan, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the Edinburgh Festival, France, Croatia and all three North American countries. Josef Traxel (Froh) was born in Mainz on September 29 1916 and died in Stuttgart on 8 October 1975. He began his studies in Darmstadt, but they were interrupted by military service. He was allowed to take time off from convalescence in a military hospital to make his unofficial début in Mainz as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, but when he returned to the front he was captured and confined to a British prisoner-of-war camp until the war’s end. He then made a belated proper début at the theatre in Nuremberg in 1946 and moved on to the Stuttgart State Opera in 1952, the year that also marked his first appearance at the Salzburg Festival in the second ‘official’ world première of Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae (the first had been a public dress rehearsal for the elderly composer’s benefit at Salzburg just prior to the closure of all theatres in Germany). During his Bayreuth years (1954–1958) his roles ranged from Froh in the Ring and the young sailor in Tristan und Isolde to Siegmund (Die Walküre) and Walther von Stolzing (Die Meistersinger). There then followed an international career, which took him throughout Europe and to the United States, where he appeared in both Wagner and Donizetti roles. He was also a much sought-after Evangelist for perform-ances of the Bach Passions. From 1963 he taught at the Stuttgart Music Academy. Hertha Wilfert (Freia) was born in 1921. She studied with Mimi Poensgen-Warmbrunn and made her début in 1947 in Wiesbaden. Two years later she moved on to Hanover. As well as singing Freia and Gerhilde in the Bayreuth Festival Ring productions from 1954 to 1956, she also appeared as Venus in Tannhäuser. She was a regular guest in Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin, where she largely interpreted leading roles in the German and Italian repertoire, including Leonora (Il trovatore) and Aida. She also appeared at the Maggio Musicale in Florence in the title role of Weber’s Euryanthe concurrently with her Bayreuth assignments. Maria von Ilosvay (Erda) was born on 8 May 1913 in Budapest. She studied there and in Vienna, in which latter city she won an international singing competition in 1937. She toured North America under the name Esther von Ilosvay from 1937 to 1939, primarily singing Dorabella in Così fan tutte with the Salzburg Opera, and while in New York she created a sensation in the American première of Jacques Ibert’s opera Angélique. In 1940, she joined the ensemble of the Hamburg State Opera, where she
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TESTAMENT

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