Gustav Walter
Encyclopedia
Gustav Walter was a Bohemian opera
tic tenor
who sang leading roles for more than 30 years at the Vienna Staatsoper in Austria. He was a highly regarded interpreter of the vocal music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and the lighter tenor roles composed by Richard Wagner
. Walther also created the role of Assad in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark
's Die Königin von Saba
and performed in some Italian and French operas.
After retiring from the stage in 1887, Walter toured Europe as a lauded recitalist of lieder, premiering numerous songs by Johannes Brahms
and Antonín Dvořák
. He became a celebrated pedagogue, teaching voice at the Vienna Conservatory for more than two decades. Notably, too, he is one of the very earliest singers to have left a legacy of gramophone
recordings.
. However, under pressure from his parents, he abandoned his musical pursuits and entered the Prague Polytechnic Institute to study engineering. After finishing his studies, he became the engineer for a sugar factory in his hometown of Bílina. He sang part time in a male quartet in Prague while working as an engineer. His excellent natural voice was discovered by Franz Vogl who immediately offered to become his teacher. For many years, music historians believed he had studied with Johann Friedrich Samuel Johann but recent scholarship has confirmed that his studies were entirely with Vogl.
, Walter made his operatic début as a lyric tenor in the role of Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
. The following year he moved to Austria due to the persuasion of soprano
Rosa Czillag. He promptly joined the Vienna Staatsoper, singing there for the next thirty one years in primarily leading roles. His first role with the company was Gomez in Conradin Kreutzer
's Das Nachtlager in Granada
.
Walter became a highly popular Mozart singer and notably performed the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni
in 1869 for the opening of the new opera house in Vienna. He also found success in several Wagner roles. He sang Walther von Stolzing in the somewhat ill-fated Viennese première of Wagner's Die Meistersinger (1870), the title role in Lohengrin
, and the role of Loge in both Das Rheingold
and Die Walküre
. In 1875 he origninated the role of Assad in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark
's Die Königin von Saba
opposite Amalie Materna
as the Queen of Sheba.
In 1882, he sang Alfonso in Vienna's first performance of Franz Schubert
's Alfonso und Estrella
. His other notable roles with the company included Manrico in Verdi's Il trovatore
(1859), the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto
(1860), Riccardo in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
(1866), and Vasco da Gama in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine
(1866) among others.
Walter also periodically performed in opera houses in Germany and Bohemia. He sang with the Munich Court Opera in 1868, with Oper Frankfurt in numerous operas between 1864–1882, the Wiesbaden Opera House
in 1874-75, the opera house in Brno in 1875, and the National Theatre in Prague
in 1885. Some of the roles he sang in these houses include Raoul de Nangis in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots
, George Brown in Boïeldieu
's La dame blanche
, Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio
, and the title role in Gounod's Faust
.
's Mignon
at the Vienna Staatsoper. He was appointed an honorary member of the Vienna Staatsoper upon his retirement. Walter then embarked on a famous series of lieder recitals throughout Europe, notably premiering several songs by Johannes Brahms
and Antonín Dvořák
. He had previously sang in the premiere of Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer and Dvořák dedicated his Cigánské melodie (Gypsy Songs, 1880) to him. His recital tour took him to London in 1872 and he appeared with the London Philharmonic in a concert of songs by Mozart, Carl Riedel
, and Anton Rubinstein
.
In 1891, Walter performed at the Salzburg Festival
for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death. He gave numerous concerts in Munich and Dresden between 1881-1888. One of his last recitals was in Graz in 1897. Although he stopped giving solo recitals in the late 1890s, he continued to perform with others well into the next century and the beauty of his voice remained with him into the latter years of his life.
At the age of 71, in 1905, he made three recordings, including one of an aria from Mignon
. Although past his prime, "the voice is well preserved and the style both expressive and elegant". Music historians value these discs highly because in addition to their artistic merits, they preserve authentic 19th-century performance practices and singing styles.
In addition to performing, Walter spent much of his time teaching after his retirement from the operatic stage. He was a professor of voice at the Vienna Conservatory from 1882 until just a few years before he died in 1910, in Vienna. His children, Raoul Walter (1865–1917) and Minna Walter (1863–1901), were also successful opera singers.
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 tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
who sang leading roles for more than 30 years at the Vienna Staatsoper in Austria. He was a highly regarded interpreter of the vocal music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and the lighter tenor roles composed by 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...
. Walther also created the role of Assad in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...
's Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings...
and performed in some Italian and French operas.
After retiring from the stage in 1887, Walter toured Europe as a lauded recitalist of lieder, premiering numerous songs by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
and Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
. He became a celebrated pedagogue, teaching voice at the Vienna Conservatory for more than two decades. Notably, too, he is one of the very earliest singers to have left a legacy of gramophone
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
recordings.
Early life, education and career
As a young man, Walter studied violin at the Prague ConservatoryPrague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...
. However, under pressure from his parents, he abandoned his musical pursuits and entered the Prague Polytechnic Institute to study engineering. After finishing his studies, he became the engineer for a sugar factory in his hometown of Bílina. He sang part time in a male quartet in Prague while working as an engineer. His excellent natural voice was discovered by Franz Vogl who immediately offered to become his teacher. For many years, music historians believed he had studied with Johann Friedrich Samuel Johann but recent scholarship has confirmed that his studies were entirely with Vogl.
Stage career
In 1855, in BrnoBrno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
, Walter made his operatic début as a lyric tenor in the role of Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
. The following year he moved to Austria due to the persuasion of 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...
Rosa Czillag. He promptly joined the Vienna Staatsoper, singing there for the next thirty one years in primarily leading roles. His first role with the company was Gomez in Conradin Kreutzer
Conradin Kreutzer
Conradin Kreutzer or Kreuzer was a German composer and conductor. His works include the opera for which he is remembered, Das Nachtlager in Granada, and Der Verschwender, both produced in 1834.Kreutzer owes his fame almost exclusively to Das Nachtlager in Granada , which kept the stage for...
's Das Nachtlager in Granada
Das Nachtlager in Granada
Das Nachtlager in Granada is a romantic opera in two acts by Conradin Kreutzer. The libretto is written by Karl Johann Braun von Braunthal based on Johann Friedrich Kind’s drama Das Nachtlager von Granada....
.
Walter became a highly popular Mozart singer and notably performed the role of Don Ottavio 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...
in 1869 for the opening of the new opera house in Vienna. He also found success in several Wagner roles. He sang Walther von Stolzing in the somewhat ill-fated Viennese première of Wagner's Die Meistersinger (1870), the title role 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 the role of Loge in both 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...
and Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
. In 1875 he origninated the role of Assad in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...
's Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings...
opposite Amalie Materna
Amalie Materna
Amalie Materna was an Austrian operatic soprano. While possessing a famously powerful voice, Materna also maintained a youthful bright vocal timbre throughout her career which spanned for three decades...
as the Queen of Sheba.
In 1882, he sang Alfonso in Vienna's first performance of Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Alfonso und Estrella
Alfonso und Estrella
Alfonso und Estrella is an opera with music by Franz Schubert, set to a German libretto by Franz von Schober, written in 1822...
. His other notable roles with the company included Manrico in Verdi's Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
(1859), the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
(1860), Riccardo in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
(1866), and Vasco da Gama in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine
L'Africaine
L'africaine is a grand opera, the last work of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French libretto was written by Eugène Scribe. The opera is about fictitious events in the life of the real historical person Vasco da Gama...
(1866) among others.
Walter also periodically performed in opera houses in Germany and Bohemia. He sang with the Munich Court Opera in 1868, with Oper Frankfurt in numerous operas between 1864–1882, the Wiesbaden Opera House
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden is the State Theatre of the German state Hesse in the capital Wiesbaden, producing operas, plays, ballets, musicals and concerts on four stages. It is also known as Staatstheater Wiesbaden or Theater Wiesbaden...
in 1874-75, the opera house in Brno in 1875, and the National Theatre in Prague
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
in 1885. Some of the roles he sang in these houses include Raoul de Nangis in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
, George Brown in Boïeldieu
François-Adrien Boïeldieu
François-Adrien Boieldieu was a French composer, mainly of operas, often called "the French Mozart".-Biography:...
's La dame blanche
La Dame blanche
La dame blanche is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no less than five of the works by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including his novels The Monastery, Guy Mannering, and The...
, Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Florestan in Beethoven'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...
, and the title role in Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
.
Later career, recordings and death
Walter retired from the stage in 1887, with his last performance being as Wilhelm Meister in Ambroise ThomasAmbroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
's Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
at the Vienna Staatsoper. He was appointed an honorary member of the Vienna Staatsoper upon his retirement. Walter then embarked on a famous series of lieder recitals throughout Europe, notably premiering several songs by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
and Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
. He had previously sang in the premiere of Brahms' Liebeslieder-Walzer and Dvořák dedicated his Cigánské melodie (Gypsy Songs, 1880) to him. His recital tour took him to London in 1872 and he appeared with the London Philharmonic in a concert of songs by Mozart, Carl Riedel
Carl Riedel
Carl Riedel was a German conductor and composer. Born in Cronenberg, Wuppertal, he initially worked as a dyer of silk before conductor Karl Wilhelm discovered his musicical talent and encouraged him to pursue a music career...
, and Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
.
In 1891, Walter performed at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death. He gave numerous concerts in Munich and Dresden between 1881-1888. One of his last recitals was in Graz in 1897. Although he stopped giving solo recitals in the late 1890s, he continued to perform with others well into the next century and the beauty of his voice remained with him into the latter years of his life.
At the age of 71, in 1905, he made three recordings, including one of an aria from Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
. Although past his prime, "the voice is well preserved and the style both expressive and elegant". Music historians value these discs highly because in addition to their artistic merits, they preserve authentic 19th-century performance practices and singing styles.
In addition to performing, Walter spent much of his time teaching after his retirement from the operatic stage. He was a professor of voice at the Vienna Conservatory from 1882 until just a few years before he died in 1910, in Vienna. His children, Raoul Walter (1865–1917) and Minna Walter (1863–1901), were also successful opera singers.