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Ruth Hesse

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Ruth Hesse
Onstage publicity photo. Profile of a woman in stage makeup, looking down, with bouffant black hair, swept back.
Ruth Hesse as Brangäne in
Tristan und Isolde, in 1967
Born(1936-09-18)18 September 1936
Wuppertal, Gau Düsseldorf, Germany
Died13 July 2024(2024-07-13) (aged 87)
Hallstatt, Upper Austria, Austria
OccupationOperatic mezzo-soprano
Organizations
AwardsKammersängerin

Ruth Hesse (18 September 1936 – 13 July 2024) was a German opera singer. A dramatic mezzo-soprano, she was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1962 to 1995, where she took part in the world premiere of Henze's Der junge Lord. She was first invited to the Bayreuth Festival in 1960, where she performed until 1979.

Her international career began after she appeared at the Vienna State Opera in 1965 in two leading roles, Ortrud in Wagner Lohengrin and Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos. She performed there regularly to 1988, and was appointed an Austrian Kammersängerin in 1982. Hesse first appeared as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon. Her first role at the Royal Opera House, in 1969, was the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss, which became a signature role, repeated in Paris and at the 1974 Salzburg Festival, among others. Her voice was described as of a wide range, dark timbre and capable of dramatic expression.[1]

Life and career

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Born in Wuppertal on 18 September 1936, Hesse first studied with Peter Offermanns in Wuppertal, then with Hildegard Scharf in Hamburg and finally also in Milan.[1][2] 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.[3]

Première of Henze's Der junge Lord, Berlin 1965

From 1962 to 1995, she was engaged by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she learned a broad 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][4]

From the second half of the 1960s she made her first appearances at major opera houses in Europe in new roles. In 1965, she performed at the Vienna State Opera as both Ortrud and Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos.[2] A year later, she appeared as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon.[2] In 1968 she was invited by the Holland Festival to sing Herodias in Salome by Richard Strauss.[1] Hesse made her Royal Opera House debut in 1969 as the Nurse in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten.[1][2] 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".[5] In 1972, she appeared at the Paris Opéra Garnier in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and again as the Nurse,[1][2] 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,[2][6] in a production that was recorded.[7] She performed at the Festival the following year as Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal, alternating with Régine Crespin.[2]

Hesse also gave guest performances at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, 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][8]

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 TV film of Hänsel und Gretel.[9]

Personal life

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Hesse married director Siegwulf Turek [de] in 1976. They had met in 1975 at the Salzburg Festival where she appeared in Die Frau ohne Schatten and he served as an assistant to the production's set designer, Günther Schneider-Siemssen.[10] After her retirement, Hesse lived in Hallstatt, Upper Austria.[1][11] She was awarded the state's cultural medal.[11]

She died there on 13 July 2024, at the age of 87.[4][11]

Roles

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World premieres

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Repertoire

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Bartók:

Bizet:

Gluck:

Hindemith:

Humperdinck:

Janáček:

Korngold:

Mozart:

Offenbach:

 

Strauss:

Stravinsky:

Verdi:

Wagner:

Recordings

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Operas

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DVD

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Hesse performed on DVD as Mary in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, with Donald McIntyre in the title role, in 1965,[21] and as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde (with Nilsson and Jon Vickers in 1973, filmed in the Roman Theatre of Orange. Alan Blyth wrote in a review for Gramophone in 2004: "Ruth Hesse sings an ample-sounding Brangäne of a kind hardly heard today, and interprets the part with apt sympathy."[22]

Choral works

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References

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  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 z aa ab ac Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2012). "Hesse, Ruth". Großes Sängerlexikon (in German) (4th ed.). De Gruyter. p. 2064. ISBN 978-3-59-844088-5.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Disparition de la mezzo Ruth Hesse". Diapason (in French). 15 July 2024. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Ruth Hesse" (in German). Bayreuth Festival. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d "German Mezzo-Soprano Ruth Hesse has Died, Aged 88". The Violin Channel. 15 July 2024. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  5. ^ Anderson, Robert (August 1975). "Opera: Die Frau ohne Schatten". The Musical Times, Vol. 116, No. 1590, p. 723. Retrieved 27 May 2019 (subscription required).
  6. ^ Herbort, Heinz Josef (24 August 1974). "Salzburger Festspiele 1974: Märchen und Intrigen". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  7. ^ a b Werbeck, Walter, ed. (2016). Richard Strauss-Handbuch (in German). Springer Verlag. p. 211. ISBN 978-3-47-600510-6.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h "Vorstellungen mit Ruth Hesse" (in German). Vienna State Opera. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Hänsel und Gretel". fernsehserien.de (in German). 31 December 2003. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  10. ^ "Der liebste Mensch seit 1976". siegwulf-turek.at. Retrieved 27 May 2019 (in German).
  11. ^ a b c "Opernsängerin Ruth Hesse gestorben". ORF (in German). 13 July 2024. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Ruth Hesse". isoldes-liebestod.net (in German). Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  13. ^ "Humperdinck, E.: Hänsel und Gretel (Kommentierte Diskographie)". Klassikforum (in German). 18 November 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  14. ^ a b Martell, Victor (July 2003). "Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) / Violanta". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  15. ^ Steiger, Karsten (2016). Opern-Diskographie: Verzeichnis aller Audio- und Video-Gesamtaufnahmen (in German). Springer Verlag. pp. 201–202. ISBN 978-3-47-600510-6.
  16. ^ "Die verkaufte Braut" (in German). Bertelsmann. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  17. ^ "Lohengrin / Nürnberg 1968 Swarowsky". Bavaria (in German). Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  18. ^ "Tristan / Wien 1970 Stein". Bavaria (in German). Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  19. ^ Birgit Nilsson / The Great Live Recordings birgitnilsson100.com
  20. ^ "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg / Dresden 1968 Karajan". Bavaria (in German). Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  21. ^ "Der fliegende Holländer". filmportal.de (in German). Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  22. ^ Blyth, Alan (February 2004). "Wagner Tristan & Isolde". Gramophone. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  23. ^ Martell, Victor (July 2014). "Forgotten Artists – An occasional series by Christopher Howell / 8. Hans Swarowsky (1899–1975)". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  24. ^ OCLC 23452075

Further reading

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