Franz Mazura
Encyclopedia
Franz Mazura is an Austria
n bass-baritone
opera
singer and actor. He was made a Kammersänger
in 1980 and an Honorary Member of the National Theater of Mannheim in 1990. He most often plays villains and strange characters.
Mazura studied with Frederick Husler at the Academy of Music
in Detmold
, and worked during his studies as an actor at the National Theater in Detmold. Mazura debuted in 1949 in Kassel
, thereafter singing in Mainz
, Brunswick
, and Mannheim
(where he was a member from 1964–1987). In 1960 he performed at the Salzburg Festspiele, in 1961 at the Berlin Opera, in 1971 at Bayreuth
, and in 1973 at the Hamburg State Opera
; he has also performed at the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera
.
Notable appearances include his 1976 performance as Alberich in Richard Wagner
's Das Rheingold
under Georg Solti
and Peter Stone
, and as Dr. Schön in Alban Berg
's Lulu
under Pierre Boulez
and Patrice Chéreau
, in its first complete performance as well as performances of Parsifal
, Tosca
, Wozzeck
, Fidelio
, Moses und Aron
, and Der Kaiser von Atlantis
.
Mazura appears on two Grammy Award
winning recordings: as Dr. Schön in Lulu, conducted by Pierre Boulez (Best Opera Recording
1980) and as Moses in Moses und Aron, conducted by Sir Georg Solti (Best Opera Recording 1985).
He can be seen on video as Klingsor in a performance from the Metropolitan Opera
conducted by James Levine
, and as Doktor Schön in Lulu, also from the Metropolitan Opera under Levine.
Further reading
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
opera
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...
singer and actor. He was made a Kammersänger
Kammersänger
Kammersänger , abbreviation: "Ks.", literally means "Chamber singer." It is a German honorific title for distinguished singers...
in 1980 and an Honorary Member of the National Theater of Mannheim in 1990. He most often plays villains and strange characters.
Mazura studied with Frederick Husler at the Academy of Music
Hochschule für Musik Detmold
The University of Music Detmold is one of Germany's leading university-level schools of music, situated in Detmold, Germany.- Academics :...
in Detmold
Detmold
Detmold is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of about 74,000. It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947...
, and worked during his studies as an actor at the National Theater in Detmold. Mazura debuted in 1949 in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, thereafter singing in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
, and Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
(where he was a member from 1964–1987). In 1960 he performed at the Salzburg Festspiele, in 1961 at the Berlin Opera, in 1971 at Bayreuth
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
, and in 1973 at the Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the "Opern-Theatrum" was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile...
; he has also performed at the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
.
Notable appearances include his 1976 performance as Alberich in Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
under Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
and Peter Stone
Peter Stone
Peter Hess Stone was an American writer for theater, television and movies.-Life and career:Stone was born in Los Angeles. His mother, Hilda , was a film writer, and his father, John Stone was the writer and producer of many silent films, including Shirley Temple and Charlie Chan movies...
, and as Dr. Schön in Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
's Lulu
Lulu (opera)
Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted by Berg himself from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora .-Composition history:...
under Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
and Patrice Chéreau
Patrice Chéreau
Patrice Chéreau is a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor, and producer.-Biography:Patrice Chéreau was born in Lézigné, Maine-et-Loire, and went to school in Paris. At a young age he became well-known to Parisian critics as director, actor, and stage manager of his high-school theatre...
, in its first complete performance as well as performances 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...
, 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...
, Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
, Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...
, and Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Die Tod-Verweigerung is a one-act opera by Viktor Ullmann with a libretto by Peter Kien. Both Ullmann and Kien were inmates at the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt , where they collaborated on the opera, around 1943...
.
Mazura appears on two Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winning recordings: as Dr. Schön in Lulu, conducted by Pierre Boulez (Best Opera Recording
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording
The Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording has been awarded since 1961. The award was originally titled Best Classical Opera Production. The current title has been used since 1962....
1980) and as Moses in Moses und Aron, conducted by Sir Georg Solti (Best Opera Recording 1985).
He can be seen on video as Klingsor in a performance from the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
conducted by James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
, and as Doktor Schön in Lulu, also from the Metropolitan Opera under Levine.
Sources
- "Der Doyen der deutschen Oper gastiert in Brüssel", Interview of Franz Mazura with Margaretha Mazura (in German), 27 January 2010
- BillboardBillboard (magazine)Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
, "Grammy Winners", 8 March 1986 - Corriere della SeraCorriere della SeraThe Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
, "La «Lulu» di Berg seduce la Scala", 26 March 2010 (in Italian, accessed 13 April 2010) - Cummings, David (ed.), "Mazura, Franz", International Who's Who in Music, Routledge, 2000, p. 426. ISBN 0948875534
- Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Mazura, Franz (in German, accessed 13 April 2010)
- Magazin-Bereich: Kulturdatenbank, Franz Mazura (in German, accessed 13 April 2010)
- Henhan, Donal, "Siegfried, under Leinsdorf, Back at the Met", 26 September 1981
- Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, Mazura, Franz (Bass), performance record on the MetOpera Database (accessed 13 April 2010) - Ottawa CitizenOttawa CitizenThe Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...
, "Newcomer makes sweep of top Grammy Awards: Complete list of Winners", 26 February 1981, p. 61 - Schonberg, Harold, C., "First Full 'Lulu' of Berg Draws World Notables to Paris Opera", New York Times, 26 February 1979, p. A1
- Winship, Frederick M. (via UPI), "Opera to Air Nationwide", The Hour, 19 December 1980 p. 49 (accessed 13 April 2010)
Further reading
- Buderer, Hans-Jürgen and Homering, Liselotte, Die Oper, Spiegelbild der Welt: Franz Mazura, der Sänger-Schauspieler, Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2004 (FestschriftFestschriftIn academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
for the 80th birthday of Franz Mazura, in German). ISBN 3884621971 - Mazura, Franz, Franz Mazura - Mit Tusche und Notenband, Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2006 (Memoirs written and illustrated by Mazura, in German). ISBN 3927455210