Hans von Rokitansky
Encyclopedia
Baron Hans von Rokitansky (German
: Hans Freiherr von Rokitansky) (8 March 18352 November 1909) was an Austria
n opera
tic bass
who sang for three decades at the Vienna Hofoper
(now Vienna State Opera) and in concerts and operas throughout Europe between 1856 and 1877.
He performed a wide repertoire that encompassed French grand opera
, Italian bel canto
opera, the German operas of Richard Wagner
, and the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
. He possessed a deep resonant voice which remained clear until the very end of his career when his intonation
began to suffer somewhat.
After retiring from the stage in 1893, he became a much celebrated singing teacher at the Vienna Conservatory and many of his pupils went on to have highly successful opera careers.
, the son of Baron Carl von Rokitansky who was a famous physician and natural scientist. Hans's younger brother Baron Victor von Rokitansky (1836–1896), also became a successful opera singer and a composer
. He later married Therese Lablache, a soprano and the daughter of the famous operatic bass Luigi Lablache
.
Rokitansky studied music in Paris, Bologna
, and Milan
before making his professional singing
début in a 1856 concert in London. The following year he made his first appearance on the operatic stage as Oroveso in Bellini
's Notma
at the Théâtre Italien
in Paris. In 1862 he joined the roster at the National Theatre
in Prague where his first role was Cardinal Brogny in Fromental Halévy
's La Juive
. He left Prague in 1864 to join the Vienna Hofoper where he sang roles for the next twenty-nine years. His many roles at that house included Giorgio in Bellini's I puritani
, Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni
, Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute
, Bertram in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable
, the title role in Verdi's Fiesco
, Caspar in Weber
's Der Freischütz
, the Landgrave in Wagner
's Tannhäuser
, and King Henry in Wagner's Lohengrin
among others. He also notably portrayed both the High priest and the Guardian of the temple in the world premiere of Karl Goldmark
's Die Königin von Saba
in 1875.
In addition to performing in Vienna, Rokitansky periodically performed in operas and concerts in throughout Europe. He appeared in operas at Her Majesty's Theatre
in London in 1865 and in 1866, notably singing Osmin in a revival of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
. He also appeared in London performances in 1876-1877 and appeared in operas in Florence
, Milan
, Turin
, and Bologna
during the 1860s and 1870s.
After leaving the Vienna Hofoper in 1893, Rokitansky taught singing at the Vienna Conservatory for more than a decade. His younger brother Victor, also a successful opera singer and a composer, had taught at the conservatory previously from 1871 through 1880. Several of Hans's students went on to have successful opera careers, including Franz Xaver Battisti, Therese Boschetti, and Josef Staudigl
. Hans retired to Schloss Laubegg, Styria where he died on 2 November 1909.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Hans Freiherr von Rokitansky) (8 March 18352 November 1909) was an Austria
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 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...
tic bass
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
who sang for three decades at the Vienna Hofoper
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
(now Vienna State Opera) and in concerts and operas throughout Europe between 1856 and 1877.
He performed a wide repertoire that encompassed French grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
, Italian bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
opera, the German operas of 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...
, and the works 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...
. He possessed a deep resonant voice which remained clear until the very end of his career when his intonation
Intonation
Intonation may refer to:*Intonation , the variation of tone used when speaking*Intonation , a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument*Intonation Music Festival, held in Chicago...
began to suffer somewhat.
After retiring from the stage in 1893, he became a much celebrated singing teacher at the Vienna Conservatory and many of his pupils went on to have highly successful opera careers.
Life and career
Hans Freiherr von Rokitansky was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of Baron Carl von Rokitansky who was a famous physician and natural scientist. Hans's younger brother Baron Victor von Rokitansky (1836–1896), also became a successful opera singer and a composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He later married Therese Lablache, a soprano and the daughter of the famous operatic bass Luigi Lablache
Luigi Lablache
Luigi Lablache was an Italian opera singer of French and Irish heritage. He was most noted for his comic performances, possessing a powerful and agile bass voice, a wide range, and adroit acting skills: Leporello in Don Giovanni was one of his signature roles.-Biography:Luigi Lablache was born in...
.
Rokitansky studied music in Paris, Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, and Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
before making his professional singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
début in a 1856 concert in London. The following year he made his first appearance on the operatic stage as Oroveso in Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's Notma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
at the Théâtre Italien
Comédie-Italienne
Over time, there have been several buildings and several theatrical companies named the "Théâtre-Italien" or the "Comédie-Italienne" in Paris. Following the times, the theatre has shown both plays and operas...
in Paris. In 1862 he joined the roster at the National Theatre
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 Prague where his first role was Cardinal Brogny in Fromental Halévy
Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy , was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.-Early career:...
's La Juive
La Juive
La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on February 23, 1835.-Composition history:...
. He left Prague in 1864 to join the Vienna Hofoper where he sang roles for the next twenty-nine years. His many roles at that house included Giorgio in Bellini's I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
, Leporello in Mozart's 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...
, Sarastro in Mozart's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Bertram in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable
Robert le diable
Robert le diable may refer to:* Robert le diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer* Robert the Devil, a medieval legend...
, the title role in Verdi's Fiesco
Fiesco (play)
Fiesco is the second full length drama written by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller. It is a republican tragedy based on the historical conspiracy of Giovanni Luigi Fieschi against Andrea Doria in Genoa in 1547...
, Caspar in Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
's Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
, the Landgrave in 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 Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, and King Henry in Wagner's 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...
among others. He also notably portrayed both the High priest and the Guardian of the temple 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...
in 1875.
In addition to performing in Vienna, Rokitansky periodically performed in operas and concerts in throughout Europe. He appeared in operas at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
in London in 1865 and in 1866, notably singing Osmin in a revival of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
. He also appeared in London performances in 1876-1877 and appeared in operas in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, and Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
during the 1860s and 1870s.
After leaving the Vienna Hofoper in 1893, Rokitansky taught singing at the Vienna Conservatory for more than a decade. His younger brother Victor, also a successful opera singer and a composer, had taught at the conservatory previously from 1871 through 1880. Several of Hans's students went on to have successful opera careers, including Franz Xaver Battisti, Therese Boschetti, and Josef Staudigl
Josef Staudigl
Josef Staudigl was an Austrian bass singer.- Life :Staudigl attended the school in Wiener Neustadt and, from 1825, was a novice in the Benedictine monastery of Stift Melk. In 1827 he went to Vienna to study surgery there...
. Hans retired to Schloss Laubegg, Styria where he died on 2 November 1909.