Ruth Hesse

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Ruth Hesse
Born (1936-09-18) 18 September 1936 (age 87)
Wuppertal, Germany
OccupationOperatic mezzo-soprano
Organizations
AwardsKammersängerin

Ruth Hesse (born 18 September 1936) is a German dramatic mezzo-soprano. She was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1962 to 1995, and appeared internationally, including the Bayreuth Festival and the Salzburg Festival. She appeared regularly at the Vienna State Opera from 1965 to 1988, and was appointed an Austrian Kammersängerin in 1982. In Berlin, she took part in the world premiere of Henze's Der junge Lord.

Life and career[edit]

Born in Wuppertal, Hesse first studied with Peter Offermanns in Wuppertal, then with Hildegard Scharf in Hamburg and finally also in Milan.[1] She made her debut in 1958 at the Theater Lübeck as Orpheus in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and remained there until 1960. Afterwards she was engaged for two seasons at the Staatsoper Hannover. In 1960 she made her debut at the Hamburg State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival, where she performed until 1979 and was gradually assigned larger roles, culminating in Ortrud in Lohengrin, opposite Peter Hofmann and Karan Armstrong.[2]

Première of Henze's Der junge Lord, Berlin 1965

From 1962 to 1995, she was engaged by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, singing a wide repertoire. She took part in the world premiere of Henze's Der junge Lord on 7 April 1965, singing the role of Frau von Hufnagel.[1]

From the second half of the 1960s she made her first appearances at major opera houses in Europe in new roles. In 1965, she sang at the Vienna State Opera both Ortrud and Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos. A year later, she appeared as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Lyon Opera. In 1968 she was invited by the Holland Festival to sing Herodias in Salome by Richard Strauss. Hesse made her Royal Opera House debut in 1969 as the Nurse in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, a lengthy and vocally demanding role depicting a morally ambiguous character.[1][3] When she reprised the role there in 1975, the critic for The Musical Times described her performance as "tirelessly ingenious and vocally in splendid command".[4] In 1972, she sang at the Paris Opéra Garnier in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and again as the Nurse. In 1974 and 1975 she was the Nurse in an acclaimed production at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Karl Böhm and directed by Günther Rennert, alongside James King and Leonie Rysanek as the imperial couple and Walter Berry and Birgit Nilsson as the Dyer and his wife,[5] in a production that was recorded.[6]

Hesse also gave guest performances at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Marseille, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Chorégies d'Orange and Grand Théâtre de Genève, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. She also performed in several Italian opera houses, including the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio di Torino and La Fenice in Venice. Invitations to North America took her to the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Washington National Opera and to Mexico City. In South America she performed at the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires and the Rio de Janeiro Opera. A tour by the Deutsche Oper Berlin also brought her to Japan.[1]

She was a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera from 1965 to 1988, where she appeared as Herodias, the Nurse, Ortrud, Brangäne, Magdalene, Fricka and Waltraute, Eboli, as well as Amneris in Verdi's Aida, Azucena in his Il trovatore, Maddalena in his Rigoletto and Preziosilla in his La forza del destino, Giulietta in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann and Burija in Janáček's Jenůfa. In 1982 she was appointed a Kammersängerin. On 29 November 1988, she retired from the house as Herodias.[1][7]

She also performed in concert, including a performance of Salome at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1975.[1] In 1970, Hesse portrayed Gertrud in a film of Hänsel und Gretel.

Hesse married director Siegwulf Turek [de] in 1976. The couple met in 1975 at the Salzburg Festival. Hess was singing in Die Frau ohne Schatten and Siegwulf was serving as an assistant to the production's set designer, Günther Schneider-Siemssen.[8]

Hesse's performances of Tristan und Isolde (with Nilsson and Jon Vickers, 1973) and Der fliegende Holländer (opposite Sir Donald McIntyre, 1975) may be found on DVD.

Roles[edit]

World premieres[edit]

Repertoire[edit]

Bartók:

Bizet:

Gluck:

Hindemith:

Humperdinck:

Janáček:

Korngold:

Mozart:

Offenbach:

 

Strauss:

Stravinsky:

Verdi:

Wagner:

Recordings[edit]

Operas[edit]

Choral works[edit]

Literature[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2012). "Hesse, Ruth". Großes Sängerlexikon (in German) (4th ed.). Walter de Gruyter. p. 2064. ISBN 978-3-59-844088-5.
  2. ^ "Ruth Hesse" (in German). Bayreuth Festival. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  3. ^ Goldmann, A. J. (September 2014). "Die Frau ohne Schatten". Opera News. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  4. ^ Anderson, Robert (August 1975). "Opera: Die Frau ohne Schatten". The Musical Times, Vol. 116, No. 1590, p. 723. Retrieved 27 May 2019 (subscription required).
  5. ^ Herbort, Heinz Josef (24 August 1974). "Salzburger Festspiele 1974: Märchen und Intrigen". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  6. ^ a b Werbeck, Walter, ed. (2016). Richard Strauss-Handbuch (in German). Springer Verlag. p. 211. ISBN 978-3-47-600510-6.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Vorstellungen mit Ruth Hesse" (in German). Vienna State Opera. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Der liebste Mensch seit 1976". siegwulf-turek.at. Retrieved 27 May 2019 (in German).
  9. ^ a b "Ruth Hesse". isoldes-liebestod.net (in German). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  10. ^ "Humperdinck, E.: Hänsel und Gretel (Kommentierte Diskographie)". Klassikforum (in German). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  11. ^ a b Martell, Victor (July 2003). "Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) / Violanta". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  12. ^ Steiger, Karsten (2016). Opern-Diskographie: Verzeichnis aller Audio- und Video-Gesamtaufnahmen (in German). Springer Verlag. pp. 201–202. ISBN 978-3-47-600510-6.
  13. ^ Birgit Nilsson / The Great Live Recordings birgitnilsson100.com
  14. ^ Martell, Victor (July 2014). "Forgotten Artists - An occasional series by Christopher Howell / 8. Hans Swarowsky (1899-1975)". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  15. ^ OCLC 23452075

External links[edit]

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