Benno Ziegler (8 January 1887 – 18 April 1963) was a German operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

Life

Born in Munich the son of the opera singer Wilhelm Ziegler (1857-1931), Ziegler studied at the

University of Music and Performing Arts Munich The University of Music and Theatre Munich (), also known as the Munich Conservatory, is a performing arts conservatory in Munich, Germany. The main building it currently occupies is the former ''Führerbau'' of the NSDAP, located at Arcisstr ...

. One teacher there was the Kammersinger Paul Bender. He had his debut in 1909 as Silvio in ''

Pagliacci ''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, 'Clowns') is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who mu ...

'' at the

Theater Augsburg The Staatstheater Augsburg is a theatre of Augsburg, Germany. Until 1999 it was called Städtische Bühnen Augsburg, from then until the end of August 2018 it was called ''Theater Augsburg''. It offers on four stages musical theatre, plays and bal ...

. Further engagements took him to Dortmund, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Berlin and in 1925 he was engaged as a lyricist and baritone at the

Oper Frankfurt The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Schreker's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, ''Fennimore and Gerda, Fennimore ...

. With the soprano Else Gentner-Fischer, who was married to him in a second marriage, he appeared there on the 1 January 1925. In February 1930 she appeared in the role of the spouse in the world

premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the ...

of Arnold Schönberg's ''

Von heute auf morgen ' (''From Today to Tomorrow'' or ''From One Day to the Next'') is a one act opera composed by Arnold Schoenberg, to a German libretto by "Max Blonda", the pseudonym of Gertrud Schoenberg, the composer's wife. It is the composer's opus 32. The ope ...

'', directed by

Herbert Graf Herbert Graf (10 April 1903 – 5 April 1973) was an Austrian-American opera producer. Born in Vienna in 1903, he was the son of Max Graf (1873–1958), and Olga Hönig. His father was an Austrian author, critic, musicologist and member of Si ...

and conducted by

William Steinberg William Steinberg (Cologne, August 1, 1899New York City, May 16, 1978) was a German-American conductor. Biography Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, c ...

. Ziegler was dismissed from the city stage for racist reasons in 1933 after the transfer of power to the National Socialists. Else Ziegler's engagement in Frankfurt was also terminated in 1935 because of her marriage to a non-Aryan, so that she lived in complete seclusion in

Prien am Chiemsee Prien am Chiemsee (official: , High German [], Bavarian (local) dialect []) is a municipality in the Upper Bavarian Rosenheim (district), district of Rosenheim in Germany. The town is a certified Luftkurort, air and Sebastian Kneipp, Kneipp sp ...

and died there in 1943. Ziegler took himself to safety in Great Britain in 1939, where he had to make his living as an unskilled worker. Ziegler owned a property in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, which had been administered by his brother Edmund (1879-1943) until the

Aryanization Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis powers, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It enta ...

. Edmund was deported to Gurs in 1940 and killed in 1943 in the

Majdanek concentration camp Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...

. His nephew Paul-Alexander (1922-) was saved in 1938 by a

kindertransport The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children from Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, total ...

to England.Memorial Book for the Jews of Karlsruhe
. The property is listed there as Karlstraße 8. After the war Ziegler returned to Germany in 1947 and lived in Prien and Munich. Today Ziegler is represented in editions of historical recordings by

Lotte Lehmann Charlotte "Lotte" Pauline Sophie Lehmann (February 27, 1888 – August 26, 1976) was a German-American dramatic soprano noted for her successful performances with international opera houses, on the recital stage and in teaching.She gave memorable ...

Richard Tauber Richard Tauber (16 May 1891, Linz – 8 January 1948, London) was an Austrian lyric tenor and film actor. He performed the tenor role in numerous operas, including ''Don Giovanni'' by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. Early life Richard Tauber was b ...

Elisabeth Rethberg Elisabeth Rethberg ( Lisbeth Sättler; 22 September 1894 – 6 June 1976) was a German operatic spinto soprano singer who was active from the period of the First World War through the early 1940s. After Richard Strauss assigned the role of the ...

, Sabine Kalter, Emmy Bettendorf and Karin Branzell.

External links

Benno Ziegler
on LexMusic
Oper Frankfurt (Memento des Originals vom 22. Juni 2011 im Internet Archive)
on *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ziegler, Benno German operatic baritones 20th-century German male opera singers 1887 births 1963 deaths Singers from Munich

Life

Further reading

External links

References