Herbert Janssen
Encyclopedia
Herbert Janssen was a leading German operatic baritone
who had an international career in Europe and the United States.
In 1922, Janssen was offered his first contract at the Berlin State Opera
, starting with small roles but rising in status quickly. A year later, during the 1923-24 Berlin season, he appeared for the first time as Wolfram in Richard Wagner
's Tannhäuser
, a role that would become one of his trademarks.
Janssen remained a member of the State Opera's ensemble until 1937. During this time, he appeared as a guest at most of the important opera houses and festivals in Europe.
Beginning in 1925, Janssen spent the summer months singing at the Wagner-Festival at the Zoppoter Waldoper. From 1926 until World War II, he regularly sang at the Royal Opera House
in Covent Garden
, London. Guest appearances led him to the Vienna State Opera, Nationaltheater München, Opera Garnier in Paris, Semperoper
in Dresden and the principal operatic theatres in Barcelona and Den Haag. From 1930 to 1937, he sang at the Bayreuth Festival
.
He was known to say that he sang opera so he could sing Lieder. No one would attend a solo Lieder concert unless the artist had achieved fame in opera. He said he always considered himself a Lieder singer first and foremost. He made a number of recordings of Lieder, in addition to his sublime performances in opera, some of which have been preserved and are now available on CD.
. His escape was facilitated by Toscanini.
This sole accusation of Nazism is evidentially contradicted by Janssen's presence on the famous 1944 Toscanini broadcast of Fidelio. Learning of the danger to him from the Nazis for speaking against Hitler, Janssen fled Germany as a political refugee, with the help of Toscanini, who was known for his outspoken opposition to fascism. If Janssen had had any association with the Nazis, he would not have received Toscanini's assistance, nor would he have appeared on Toscanini's broadcast of Fidelio.
Janssen's opposition to the Nazi party is confirmed by Toscanini biographer, sound engineer Richard Caniell and Janssen's student, American Jewish soprano Ilona Simon-Muller. Simon-Muller tells this story as related to her by Janssen, who had been invited to dine with Hitler following a performance at Baryreuth. According to Simon-Muller, Janssen said "I will sing for the man, but I will not eat with him." Simon-Muller further reports: "That was enough to mark him as an enemy of the Nazis. A warrant for his arrest became known, and it was Toscanini who came to get him one evening following another performance at Bayreuth, telling him he was going to be arrested, and that he had to leave that night with him for Buenos Aires. He left with the clothes on his back. Erna, his wife, was called in to the Gestapo headquarters, where she saved her own life, by saying, when asked about Herbert's whereabouts, 'I don't know and I don't care. I hope when you find him that you kill him'. She walked out and Toscanini took her to Buenos Aires where she joined her husband."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zCBekfH9U
Tangible evidence of Janssen's innocence in regards to the charges of Nazi party membership can be seen in Toscanini's famous 1944 broadcast recording of Beethoven's opera Fidelio. Janssen was selected by the anti-fascist Toscanini to sing the role of Pizarro in his famous broadcast recording of Fidelio. Toscanini was openly and famously opposed to Nazism and would not have used Janssen in his recording of Beethoven's opera about political freedom had he (Janssen) had any Nazi affiliation. Toscanini's opposition to fascism has been well-documented. [Harvey Sachs,'Salzburg, Hitler, and Toscanini. Grand Street, vol. 6 no. 1, Autumn 1986 http://www.jstor.org/pss/25006938] So impassioned an anti-Nazi was Toscanini, that he refused to conduct at Bayreuth and Salzburg, emphasizing Janssen's innocence of any Nazi charges. His student, Simon-Muller remembers a prominent photo of Toscanini hanging in Janssen's New York apartment.
Further evidence that Janssen was not a Nazi can be found in anti-Nazi Friedelind Wagner's memoirs, Heritage of Fire (1945, Harper, New York). In this book, Richard Wagner's granddaughter describes Janssen as a "brave artist" who, rather than share a meal with Hitler had left town for the day, thereby ending up in Hitler's black books because "the Führer didn't like to be snubbed" (p.101)
From 1939 Janssen lived in New York City, where he accepted a contract to sing at the Metropolitan Opera
, remaining at the Met until the end of his stage career in 1951. He never returned to Germany. He stayed on in New York during his retirement and was a sought-after singing teacher until his death in 1965.
roles (such as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro) and as Lortzing
's Zar Peter in Zar und Zimmermann
. Major baritone roles composed by Giuseppe Verdi
also figured in his early repertoire. They included Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore
(a personal favourite of his) as well as Renato in Un ballo in maschera
and Iago in Otello
. He performed Bizet
(Escamillo in Carmen
), too, and much else.
Yet at the height of his career, especially at the Metropolitan Opera, Janssen was cast overwhelmingly in Wagnerian roles (a development which he regretted because it curtailed his versatility as a singer). Indeed, during his vocal prime, he was considered to be the most important extant singer of the more lyrical baritone parts in Wagner's music dramas. He was celebrated for his beautifully-sung interpretations of Kurwenal (in Tristan und Isolde
), Amfortas (Parsifal
) and, above all, Wolfram (Tannhäuser
). The heavier Wagnerian baritone roles, such as Wotan and Hans Sachs
, were the natural preserve of Janssen's more heroic-voiced contemporaries Friedrich Schorr
and Rudolf Bockelmann
, but he was ill-advised enough to attempt them during the Second World War, owing to a shortage of dramatic singers at the Met.
Janssen made commercial gramophone records of some of his signature roles. There is also a recording derived from the 1930 Bayreuth Festival
with him performing Wolfram's music, while he sang the role of Don Pisarro in a 1944 radio broadcast of Beethoven's Fidelio
, with Arturo Toscanini
conducting. These recordings have all been re-issued on CD. A live 1941 Met Tannhäuser reveals Janssen's perfection in the role of Wolfram, to which he brought unsurpassed humanity and vocal beauty. On top of his other attainments, Janssen was a fine Lieder singer, employing his soft, rich and velvety voice, with its Italianate timbre and smooth legato style, to outstanding effect.
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
who had an international career in Europe and the United States.
Biography
Janssen came from a wealthy, music-loving family and received his first singing lessons in his early youth. He grew up in the family's castle on the Rhine, which was filled with magnificent art. His family wanted him to study law for the benefit of the family business. They disowned him upon discovering that he had used his law school tuition to study singing instead of law. He did, in fact, study law before deciding to commit to a professional singing career. The night he made his debut at the Berlin Stadstoper, a 12' Bosendorfer concert grand piano was delivered to the opera house with a card saying "welcome back to the family". He returned the piano to his family and went on to sing everywhere to great acclaim.In 1922, Janssen was offered his first contract 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:...
, starting with small roles but rising in status quickly. A year later, during the 1923-24 Berlin season, he appeared for the first time as Wolfram 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 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...
, a role that would become one of his trademarks.
Janssen remained a member of the State Opera's ensemble until 1937. During this time, he appeared as a guest at most of the important opera houses and festivals in Europe.
Beginning in 1925, Janssen spent the summer months singing at the Wagner-Festival at the Zoppoter Waldoper. From 1926 until World War II, he regularly sang at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, London. Guest appearances led him to the Vienna State Opera, Nationaltheater München, Opera Garnier in Paris, Semperoper
Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...
in Dresden and the principal operatic theatres in Barcelona and Den Haag. From 1930 to 1937, he sang at the Bayreuth Festival
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...
.
He was known to say that he sang opera so he could sing Lieder. No one would attend a solo Lieder concert unless the artist had achieved fame in opera. He said he always considered himself a Lieder singer first and foremost. He made a number of recordings of Lieder, in addition to his sublime performances in opera, some of which have been preserved and are now available on CD.
Posthumous Charge of Nazism
One source which gives no references or documentation (the author of which is now deceased, rendering the source unverifiable), has claimed that in 1937 Janssen became a member of the Nazi party. However, a year later he had to flee Germany as a political refugee, going initially to Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. His escape was facilitated by Toscanini.
This sole accusation of Nazism is evidentially contradicted by Janssen's presence on the famous 1944 Toscanini broadcast of Fidelio. Learning of the danger to him from the Nazis for speaking against Hitler, Janssen fled Germany as a political refugee, with the help of Toscanini, who was known for his outspoken opposition to fascism. If Janssen had had any association with the Nazis, he would not have received Toscanini's assistance, nor would he have appeared on Toscanini's broadcast of Fidelio.
Janssen's opposition to the Nazi party is confirmed by Toscanini biographer, sound engineer Richard Caniell and Janssen's student, American Jewish soprano Ilona Simon-Muller. Simon-Muller tells this story as related to her by Janssen, who had been invited to dine with Hitler following a performance at Baryreuth. According to Simon-Muller, Janssen said "I will sing for the man, but I will not eat with him." Simon-Muller further reports: "That was enough to mark him as an enemy of the Nazis. A warrant for his arrest became known, and it was Toscanini who came to get him one evening following another performance at Bayreuth, telling him he was going to be arrested, and that he had to leave that night with him for Buenos Aires. He left with the clothes on his back. Erna, his wife, was called in to the Gestapo headquarters, where she saved her own life, by saying, when asked about Herbert's whereabouts, 'I don't know and I don't care. I hope when you find him that you kill him'. She walked out and Toscanini took her to Buenos Aires where she joined her husband."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zCBekfH9U
Tangible evidence of Janssen's innocence in regards to the charges of Nazi party membership can be seen in Toscanini's famous 1944 broadcast recording of Beethoven's opera Fidelio. Janssen was selected by the anti-fascist Toscanini to sing the role of Pizarro in his famous broadcast recording of Fidelio. Toscanini was openly and famously opposed to Nazism and would not have used Janssen in his recording of Beethoven's opera about political freedom had he (Janssen) had any Nazi affiliation. Toscanini's opposition to fascism has been well-documented. [Harvey Sachs,'Salzburg, Hitler, and Toscanini. Grand Street, vol. 6 no. 1, Autumn 1986 http://www.jstor.org/pss/25006938] So impassioned an anti-Nazi was Toscanini, that he refused to conduct at Bayreuth and Salzburg, emphasizing Janssen's innocence of any Nazi charges. His student, Simon-Muller remembers a prominent photo of Toscanini hanging in Janssen's New York apartment.
Further evidence that Janssen was not a Nazi can be found in anti-Nazi Friedelind Wagner's memoirs, Heritage of Fire (1945, Harper, New York). In this book, Richard Wagner's granddaughter describes Janssen as a "brave artist" who, rather than share a meal with Hitler had left town for the day, thereby ending up in Hitler's black books because "the Führer didn't like to be snubbed" (p.101)
From 1939 Janssen lived in New York City, where he accepted a contract to sing at 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...
, remaining at the Met until the end of his stage career in 1951. He never returned to Germany. He stayed on in New York during his retirement and was a sought-after singing teacher until his death in 1965.
Repertory
Originally, Janssen had sung an extensive and manifold repertory. He appeared in, for example, MozartWolfgang 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...
roles (such as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro) and as Lortzing
Albert Lortzing
Gustav Albert Lortzing was a German composer, actor and singer. He is considered to be the main representative of the German Spieloper, a form similar to the French opéra comique, which grew out of the Singspiel.-Biography:Lortzing was born in Berlin to Johann Gottlieb Lortzing and Charlotte Sophie...
's Zar Peter in Zar und Zimmermann
Zar und Zimmermann
Zar und Zimmermann is an opera in three acts, music by Albert Lortzing, libretto by the composer after Georg Christian Römer's Der Bürgermeister on Saarlem, oder Die zwei Peter, itself based on a French work entitled Le Bourgesmestre de Sardam, ou Les deux Pierres by Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier...
. Major baritone roles composed by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
also figured in his early repertoire. They included Conte di Luna in 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...
(a personal favourite of his) as well as Renato in 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...
and Iago in Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
. He performed Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
(Escamillo in 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...
), too, and much else.
Yet at the height of his career, especially at the Metropolitan Opera, Janssen was cast overwhelmingly in Wagnerian roles (a development which he regretted because it curtailed his versatility as a singer). Indeed, during his vocal prime, he was considered to be the most important extant singer of the more lyrical baritone parts in Wagner's music dramas. He was celebrated for his beautifully-sung interpretations of Kurwenal (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...
), Amfortas (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...
) and, above all, Wolfram (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...
). The heavier Wagnerian baritone roles, such as Wotan and Hans Sachs
Hans Sachs
Hans Sachs was a German meistersinger , poet, playwright and shoemaker.-Biography:Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg . His father was a tailor. He attended Latin school in Nuremberg...
, were the natural preserve of Janssen's more heroic-voiced contemporaries Friedrich Schorr
Friedrich Schorr
Friedrich Schorr , was a renowned Austrian-Hungarian bass-baritone opera singer of Jewish origin. He later became a naturalized American....
and Rudolf Bockelmann
Rudolf Bockelmann
Rudolf Bockelmann was a German dramatic baritone and Kammersänger. He built an international career as an outstanding Wagnerian singer but damaged his reputation during the 1930s by joining the Nazi Party.-Biography:Bockelmann, the son of a village schoolmaster, was born at Bodenteich near Celle...
, but he was ill-advised enough to attempt them during the Second World War, owing to a shortage of dramatic singers at the Met.
Janssen made commercial gramophone records of some of his signature roles. There is also a recording derived from the 1930 Bayreuth Festival
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...
with him performing Wolfram's music, while he sang the role of Don Pisarro in a 1944 radio broadcast of 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...
, with Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
conducting. These recordings have all been re-issued on CD. A live 1941 Met Tannhäuser reveals Janssen's perfection in the role of Wolfram, to which he brought unsurpassed humanity and vocal beauty. On top of his other attainments, Janssen was a fine Lieder singer, employing his soft, rich and velvety voice, with its Italianate timbre and smooth legato style, to outstanding effect.