Kurt Marschner (27 April 1913 – 25 September 1984) was a German operatic
tenor
A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...
and actor.
Life and career
Born in
Krásná Lípa
Krásná Lípa (; ) is a town in Děčín District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,300 inhabitants.
Administrative division
Krásná Lípa consists of nine municipal parts (in brackets population according to ...
, Marschner trained as a singer at the
Dresden Conservatory
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
. He made his debut in Karlsbad (Sudetenland), not far from his native village. From 1942 to 1944 Marschner sang at the opera in German-occupied Oslo. After the end of the war he played in Oldenburg and Frankfurt. In 1949 Marschner joined the
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: ) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''Generalmusikdirektor'' ...
where he remained a member of the ensemble for several decades. At this venue he took part in over 4000 performances.
In addition to his work on stage, Marschner also appeared in filmed performances beginning in the 1960s: At first he played and sang small parts in works such as ''
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Opus number, Op. 72, is the sole opera by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of ...
'' and ''
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
''. In later years Marschner also took over bigger supporting roles such as Balthasar Zorn in Wagner's ''
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...
'' and also leading roles such as Orpheus in Offenbach's ''
Orpheus in the Underworld
''Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''Orpheus in Hell'' are English names for (), a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector-Jonathan Crémieux, Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act "op ...
''. In some filmed performances he was the voice dubbed in for the actor (e.g. 1953 in ''
La traviata'' and 1964 in ''Die Reise auf den Mond'').
Marschner died in Hamburg at age 71. He is buried in the
Friedhof Ohlsdorf
Ohlsdorf Cemetery ( or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are civilians, but ther ...
in Hamburg.
Prominenten-Gräber
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Literature
* Who’s Who in the Arts, two volumes. 2nd revised edition, Wörthsee 1978. First volume,
References
External links
Lyrics for top songs by Kurt Marschner
Kurt Marschner on Operissimo
*
Kurt Marschner
on Film Portal
Kurt Marschner
on tamino-klassikforum.de
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marschner, Kurt
1913 births
1984 deaths
People from Krásná Lípa
German operatic tenors
German male film actors
20th-century German male opera singers
Sudeten German people
Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber alumni