Max Meili, a
Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
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 ...
, was born 11 December 1899 in
Winterthur
Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...
and died 17 March 1970 in
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. He first trained as a painter then turned to singing, leading to lessons with
Felix von Kraus.
Meili was mainly a concert singer, concentrating on music from the time of
Bach and before, then just beginning to experience a
revival of public interest; he was recognized as a specialist in medieval vocal music. His appearances at the
Salzburg Festival in 1936 and 1937 were as a recitalist. Curiously, one of Meili's rare appearances in opera involved music at an extreme remove from his usual repertory; in May 1931 he participated in the premiere of
Alois Hába's opera ''
Die Mutter'' at the
Gärtnerplatztheater in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Ten years later, on 15 January 1941, Meili sang ''Addio terra, addio cielo'' from
Monteverdi's ''
L'Orfeo
''L'Orfeo'' (Stattkus-Verzeichnis, SV 318) (), or ''La favola d'Orfeo'' , is a late Renaissance music, Renaissance/early Baroque music, Baroque ''favola in musica'', or List of operas by Claudio Monteverdi, opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a li ...
'' at the funeral service of
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
at Zürich's
Fluntern Cemetery.
Meili's recordings from the 78 RPM era included
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
lute songs recorded for
His Master's Voice
His Master's Voice is an entertainment trademark featuring a dog named Nipper, curiously peering into the horn of a wind-up gramophone. Painted by Francis Barraud in 1898, the image has since become a global symbol used across consumer elect ...
(issued in the United States by
Victor) and early music released on
L'Anthologie Sonore. He continued to record into the
LP era, among other things appearing in the title role in the first post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
recording of Monteverdi’s ''L'Orfeo'', taped by the Berlin Radio in the late 1940s and released by
American Vox. By this time, however, critics began to note a decline in his voice.
Meili was a founding member of the
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 1933. In 1955 he founded the
Collegium Cantorum Turicense, which he directed in music of Monteverdi and
Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque music, Baroque composer and organ (music), organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of ...
.
References
Bach Cantatas WebsiteBiographical sketch of Max Meili accessed March 10, 2008
*Gruber, Paul: ''The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera'' (W.W. Norton & Company, 1993)
*Notes to ''Music of the Renaissance'', RCA Victor 78 RPM album MO-495 (Max Meili, ''tenor'';
Fritz Worsching, ''
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lu ...
'')
*Pindar, Ian: ''Joyce'' (Haus Publishing, 2004)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meili, Max
1899 births
1970 deaths
20th-century Swiss male opera singers
Swiss operatic tenors
People from Winterthur
Academic staff of Schola Cantorum Basiliensis