Claudia Hellmann (25 November 1923 – 24 May 2017) Death notice
'' Oberbayerisches Volksblatt'' (

Rosenheim Rosenheim is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is an independent city located in the centre of the district of Rosenheim (Upper Bavaria), and is also the seat of its administration. It is located on the west bank of the Inn at the confluence of the ...

), 27 May 2017. was a German

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typical ...

concert and operatic singer, primarily with the

Stuttgart Opera The Staatsoper Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Opera) is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart serves as its resident orchestra. History Performances of operas, ballet a ...

Biography

Hellmann was born in Berlin on 25 November, 1923 , where she studied voice with Erika Garski.Claudia Hellmann
on Bach Cantatas, 2007 She made her operatic debut in 1958 at the

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 ...

in the parts of Wellgunde in Wagner's ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...

'', 4. Edelknabe in ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

'' and 1. Knappe in ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem '' Parziv ...

''. She sang there annually until 1961, including the part of Waltraute in ''

Götterdämmerung ' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as p ...

'' in 1960. She was a member of the Theater Münster from 1958 until 1960, the

, from 1966 the opera house of Nürnberg, and she returned to Stuttgart in 1975, singing there until 1983. Hellmann frequently performed the contralto part in the recordings of

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

cantatas A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

, his ''

Christmas Oratorio The ''Christmas Oratorio'' (German: ''Weihnachtsoratorium''), , is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It is in six parts, each part a cantata intended for performance on one of ...

'' and his ''

Easter Oratorio The ''Easter Oratorio'' (), 249, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, beginning with ("Come, hasten and run"). Bach composed it in Leipzig and first performed it on 1 April 1725. History The first version of the work was completed as a ca ...

'' with the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn, the

Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra (full German name: Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim; full English name: South-west German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim) is an internationally known German chamber orchestra based in Pforzheim. History The or ...

and

Fritz Werner Fritz Werner (15 December 1898 – 22 December 1977) was a German choral conductor, church music director, conductor, organist and composer. He founded the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn in 1947 and conducted it until 1973. Career Born in Berli ...

. She recorded Bach's

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for " y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical service ...

and his Missa in F major with

Karl Ristenpart Karl Ristenpart (26 January 1900 – 24 December 1967) was a German conductor. Career Born in Kiel, Germany, he studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin and in Vienna. He was heavily involved in creating three orchestras in his lifetime ...

, the Chorale Philippe Caillard, the , Edith Selig, Georg Jelden,

Jakob Stämpfli Jakob Stämpfli (23 February 1820 – 15 May 1879) was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1854–1863). He was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 6 December 1854, and handed over office on 31 December 1863 ...

and

Maurice André Maurice André (21 May 1933 – 25 February 2012) was a French trumpeter, active in the classical music field. He was professor of trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he introduced the teaching of the pic ...

(trumpet) in 1964. Claudia Hellmann death notice

In 1963, she recorded the part of Ismene in Orff's ''

Antigonae ''Antigonae'' (''Antigone''), written by Carl Orff, was first presented on 9 August 1949 under the direction of Ferenc Fricsay in the Felsenreitschule, Salzburg, Austria, as part of the Salzburg Festival. Antigonae is in Orff's words a "musical s ...

'' with

Inge Borkh Inge Borkh (born Ingeborg Simon, 26 May 1921 – 26 August 2018) was a German operatic dramatic soprano. She was first based in Switzerland, where she received international attention when she appeared in the first performance in German of Men ...

as Antigonae,

Kieth Engen Kieth Engen (5 April 1925 – 2 September 2004) was an American operatic bass who was a member of Munich's Bavarian State Opera for decades. Although his career was based in Munich, he appeared internationally as a guest singer at major opera h ...

as Chorführer, Hetty Plümacher as Eurydice, Fritz Uhl as Haemon, and

Ernst Haefliger Ernst Haefliger (6 July 191917 March 2007) was a Swiss tenor. Biography Haefliger was born in Davos, Switzerland, on 6 July 1919 and studied at the Wettinger Seminary and the Zürich Conservatory. Later he became a pupil of Fernando Carpi in G ...

as Tiresias,

Ferdinand Leitner Ferdinand Leitner (4 March 1912 in Berlin – 3 June 1996 in Zürich) was a German Conducting, conductor. Leitner studied under Franz Schreker, Julius Prüwer, Artur Schnabel and Karl Muck. He also was a composition student with Robert Kahn (com ...

conducting the

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (german: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orchestr ...

and Choir.''Antigonae''
operone.de (in German); accessed 28 May 2017. She died in Bad Feilnbach-Au on 24 May, 2017.

References

External links

Claudia Hellmann
on the website of the Bayreuth Festival, 1999 (in German)
Entries for recordings by Claudia Hellmann
on

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellmann, Claudia 1923 births 2017 deaths Operatic contraltos German contraltos 20th-century German women opera singers Musicians from Berlin