Else Gentner-Fischer
Encyclopedia
Else Gentner-Fischer was a German opera
tic soprano
. Although she appeared in operas internationally, her career was mainly centered at the Frankfurt Opera where she was a resident artist from 1907-1935. She excelled in the dramatic soprano
repertoire, drawing particular acclaim for her portrayal of Wagnerian
heroines. She was also an exponent of the works of contremporary composers. Her career was cut short in 1935 due to political pressures and prejudice exerted against her for being married to a Jewish man. She made recordings with Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd.
, His Master's Voice, and Polydor Records
.
. She studied singing at the Hoch Conservatory
before making her professional opera debut in 1905 at the National Theatre Mannheim. That same year she married tenor Karl Gentner, to whom she was later widowed in 1922. She later married baritone Benno Ziegler. In 1906 she and her first husband both joined the roster of singers at the Frankfurt Opera through the invitation of Emil Claar. She made her first appearance at that house in early 1907, and remained committed to that opera house until her retirement from the stage in 1935. Outside of Frankfurt, she appeared as a guest artist at the Berlin State Opera
, the Liceu
, the Teatro Colón, and the Teatro Real
. She toured the United States in 1923-1924 with the German Opera Company and also toured with the Frankfurt Opera to Holland in 1934.
In her early career Gentner-Fischer sang only smaller parts, but by 1910 she was performing leading roles in the soubrette
and lyric soprano
repertoire. She notably portrayed the role of Sophie in the Frankfurt premiere of Der Rosenkavalier
in 1911. In 1914 she was one of the flower maidens in the Frankfurt premiere of Parsifal
. She soon moved into heavier repertoire, excelling in parts like Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro
, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
, the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten
, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
, and the title roles in Aida
, Carmen
, and Tosca
. As her career progressed, Wagnerian heroines increasingly became a more important part of her repertoire; including Brünnhilde in The Ring Cycle, Elsa in Lohengrin
, and Isolde in Tristan und Isolde
.
In addition to performing works from the standard soprano repertoire, Gentner-Fischer also appeared in many productions by modern composers. In Frankfurt she notably created roles in the world premieres of Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen's Oberst Chabert (1912, the Countess), Franz Schreker
's Die Gezeichneten
(1918, Carlotta Nardi), Ernst Krenek
's Der Sprung über den Schatten (1924), and Arnold Schoenberg
's Von heute auf morgen
(1930, the Wife). In 1923 she performed the role of Myrtocle in the United States premiere of Eugen d'Albert
's Die toten Augen
at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. In 1929 she sang the role of Emilia Marty in the German premiere of Leoš Janáček
's The Makropulos Case.
On 23 June 1935 Gentner-Fischer gave her final opera performance in the role of Isolde in Frankfurt. Her career was cut short due to prejudice against her husband who was of Jewish descent. In 1939 Ziegler fled Germany for England, leaving Gentner-Fischer behind. She suffered under the political conditions in her country during World War II and lived the remaining years of her life in seclusion in Upper Bavaria. She died in Prien am Chiemsee
in 1943 at the age of 59. She is buried in the Frankfurt Main Cemetery.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
. Although she appeared in operas internationally, her career was mainly centered at the Frankfurt Opera where she was a resident artist from 1907-1935. She excelled in the dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
repertoire, drawing particular acclaim for her portrayal of Wagnerian
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
heroines. She was also an exponent of the works of contremporary composers. Her career was cut short in 1935 due to political pressures and prejudice exerted against her for being married to a Jewish man. She made recordings with Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd.
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
, His Master's Voice, and Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
.
Life and career
Born Else Fischer in Frankfurt am Main, Gentner-Fischer was the daughter of a barberBarber
A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....
. She studied singing at the Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
before making her professional opera debut in 1905 at the National Theatre Mannheim. That same year she married tenor Karl Gentner, to whom she was later widowed in 1922. She later married baritone Benno Ziegler. In 1906 she and her first husband both joined the roster of singers at the Frankfurt Opera through the invitation of Emil Claar. She made her first appearance at that house in early 1907, and remained committed to that opera house until her retirement from the stage in 1935. Outside of Frankfurt, she appeared as a guest artist at the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
, the Liceu
Liceu
The Gran Teatre del Liceu , or simply Liceu in Catalan and Liceo in Spanish, is an opera house on La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain...
, the Teatro Colón, and the Teatro Real
Teatro Real
The Teatro Real or simply El Real , is a major opera house located in Madrid, Spain.-History:...
. She toured the United States in 1923-1924 with the German Opera Company and also toured with the Frankfurt Opera to Holland in 1934.
In her early career Gentner-Fischer sang only smaller parts, but by 1910 she was performing leading roles in the soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
and lyric soprano
Lyric soprano
A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have...
repertoire. She notably portrayed the role of Sophie in the Frankfurt premiere of Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
in 1911. In 1914 she was one of the flower maidens in the Frankfurt premiere of Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
. She soon moved into heavier repertoire, excelling in parts like Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten
Die Frau ohne Schatten is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917...
, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, and the title roles in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, and Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
. As her career progressed, Wagnerian heroines increasingly became a more important part of her repertoire; including Brünnhilde in The Ring Cycle, Elsa in Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, and Isolde in Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
.
In addition to performing works from the standard soprano repertoire, Gentner-Fischer also appeared in many productions by modern composers. In Frankfurt she notably created roles in the world premieres of Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen's Oberst Chabert (1912, the Countess), Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
's Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(1918, Carlotta Nardi), Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
's Der Sprung über den Schatten (1924), and Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's Von heute auf morgen
Von heute auf morgen
Von heute auf morgen is a one act opera composed by Arnold Schoenberg, to a German libretto by "Max Blonda," the pseudonym of Gertrud Schoenberg, the composer's wife...
(1930, the Wife). In 1923 she performed the role of Myrtocle in the United States premiere of Eugen d'Albert
Eugen d'Albert
Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer.Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to study in Austria...
's Die toten Augen
Die toten Augen
Die toten Augen is an opera with a prologue and one act by Eugen d'Albert to a libretto in German by Hanns Heinz Ewers and Marc Henry after Henry's own 1897 play Les yeux morts.-Performance History:Die toten Augen was first performed on 5 March 1916 at...
at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. In 1929 she sang the role of Emilia Marty in the German premiere of Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
's The Makropulos Case.
On 23 June 1935 Gentner-Fischer gave her final opera performance in the role of Isolde in Frankfurt. Her career was cut short due to prejudice against her husband who was of Jewish descent. In 1939 Ziegler fled Germany for England, leaving Gentner-Fischer behind. She suffered under the political conditions in her country during World War II and lived the remaining years of her life in seclusion in Upper Bavaria. She died in Prien am Chiemsee
Prien am Chiemsee
Prien am Chiemsee is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim, in Bavaria, Germany.-Geography:It is situated on the western shore of the Chiemsee lake, 16 km east of Rosenheim.-Famous resident:...
in 1943 at the age of 59. She is buried in the Frankfurt Main Cemetery.