Hermann Weigert (20 October 1890 in Breslau – 2 April 1955 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

) was a German vocal coach, pianist, and

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Music * Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra. * ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas * Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...

. He was a vocal coach and accompanist for the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

for thirteen years. Recognized as an authority on the works of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

, he served as a consultant to 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 ...

from 1951 until his death four years later. He was the husband, accompanist and, voice teacher of Swedish soprano Astrid Varnay, whose career he managed to international success. He also served as accompanist and vocal coach for soprano

Kirsten Flagstad Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casa ...

for many years.

Life and career

Trained at the

Berlin Hochschule für Musik The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research unive ...

, Weigert began his career working as a vocal coach at the Magdeburg Opera and at Theater Lübeck. He left those posts to join the conducting staff at the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

in 1920 where he worked with

Dimitri Mitropoulos Dimitri Mitropoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; The dates 18 February 1896 and 1 March 1896 both appear in the literature. Many of Mitropoulos's early interviews and program notes gave 18 February. In his later interviews, howe ...

Otto Klemperer Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 18856 July 1973) was a 20th-century conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the US, Hungary and finally Britain. His early career was in opera houses, but he was later better known as a concer ...

George Szell George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...

, and

Heinz Tietjen Heinz Tietjen (24 June 1881 – 30 November 1967) was a German conductor and music producer born in Tangier, Morocco. Biography Tietjen was born in Tangier, Morocco. At age twenty-three, he held the position of producer at the Opera House ...

. While conducting in Berlin, he simultaneously worked as a professor at the

Royal Berlin Academy of Music The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research unive ...

. Due to his Jewish ancestry and the rise of the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in Berlin, Weigert resigned from his post at the Berlin State Opera in 1934. After working for a brief period in South Africa, he joined the staff of the

in New York City where he worked as the chief vocal coach and accompanist for the German repertoire. At the Met he became known as an expert on the works of

, and became the primary vocal coach to sopranos

and Astrid Varnay; the latter of whom he married in 1944. In 1948 Weigert left his post at the Met and returned to Europe with Flagstad and Varnay where he helped orchestrate a successful international launch to his wife's career, beginning with the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal ...

in London. In 1951 Varnay made an acclaimed debut at the Bayreuth Festival where she appeared annually for the next seventeen years. Weigert served on the musical staff of the Bayreuth Festival from 1951 to 1955. In addition to managing his wife's career, Weigert worked as a guest conductor at numerous German opera houses from 1948 to 1955; including conducting several performances with his wife in the cast. He notably conducted recordings of his wife portraying the roles of Isolde in '' Tristan and Isolde'', the title role in ''

Salome Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, a ...

'', and Brünnhilde 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 ...

''; the latter of which won the

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. Weigert died of a heart attack at the age of 65 in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weigert, Hermann 1890 births 1955 deaths German male conductors (music) Vocal coaches Academic staff of the Berlin University of the Arts Musicians from Wrocław Musicians from Berlin 20th-century German conductors (music) 20th-century German male musicians German emigrants to the United States