Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann
Encyclopedia
Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann also formerly Ottilie Metzger-Froitzheim (Frankfurt
, 15 July 1878 – Auschwitz, February 1943) was a German contralto
who was a famous performer of Wagner during the 1910s, and who after her retirement was murdered in Auschwitz.
Her first husband was the author Clemens Froitzheim. In Hamburg she met the bass-baritone Theodor Lattermann who became her second husband. From 1901–12 she sang at Bayreuth Festival
, where her Erda was esteemed.
She was a student of Selma Nicklass-Kempner, Georg Vogel and Emanuel Reicher (acting). Her debut was 1898 in Halle
, followed by engagements in Cologne
, then from 1903 to 1915 first contralto with the Hamburg Opera and played opposite Enrico Caruso. Then followed Dresden
, Bayreuth's Festspielen, Vienna Opera, St. Petersburg, Prague
, Zürich Opera
, Amsterdam, Munich, Budapest
, Covent Garden
and tours with conductor Leo Blech
in the USA. This ended in 1925 with the illness of Theodor who died on 4 March 1926 aged 46. From 1927 she taught singing at the Stern'sches Konservatorium
in Berlin, where she herself had studied.
Metzger-Lattermann continued to perform as a Lied
er recitalist, often accompanied by Richard Strauss
and Hans Pfitzner
. She gave her last concerts in 1933 under Bruno Walter
in Berlin and Otto Klemperer
in Dresden
, with the seizure of power by Hitler.
After 1933, under the Nazi regime, Metzger-Lattermann continued to perform for Jewish audiences, on at least one occasion in a Lieder evening with the baritone Erhard Wechselmann
, who was also to perish in Auschwitz.
In 1933 the American theatre impresario George Blumental (a former associate of Oscar Hammerstein
, who in 1917 had tried to set up theatres for American troops in Paris), tried to arrange with Georg Hartmann
and Arthur Hirsch to bring over conductor Blech and a troupe of 12 Jewish opera singers to present Wagner's Ring in New York. Hirsch's assistant Otto Metzger was Ottilie's brother and Ottilie was on the list. Blumental's plans came to nothing, partly due to the unavailability of Blech, Klemperer and Walter.
Metzger-Lattermann and her daughter fled to Brussels in 1939, but there were later rounded up by the Nazis and sent to the camps. Sadly, at the time Metzger-Lattermann was already incarcerated, the Opera News magazine of the Metropolitan Opera
Guild (1941), which, like most of the American and British media, was unaware of the true seriousness of the Jewish plight in Europe, was relating the following anecdote:
The exact dates of the deaths of herself and her daughter are unknown.
for a plaque to "Richard Breitenfeld
, Henriette Gottlieb
, Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann - Honoured as festival singers Murdered in Nazi concentration camps" to be installed at Bayreuth.
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, 15 July 1878 – Auschwitz, February 1943) was a German contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
who was a famous performer of Wagner during the 1910s, and who after her retirement was murdered in Auschwitz.
Her first husband was the author Clemens Froitzheim. In Hamburg she met the bass-baritone Theodor Lattermann who became her second husband. From 1901–12 she sang at 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...
, where her Erda was esteemed.
She was a student of Selma Nicklass-Kempner, Georg Vogel and Emanuel Reicher (acting). Her debut was 1898 in Halle
Halle
Halle is a noun that means hall in the German language. It may also refer to:-In Germany:* Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, official name Halle , also called Halle or Halle an der Saale...
, followed by engagements in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, then from 1903 to 1915 first contralto with the Hamburg Opera and played opposite Enrico Caruso. Then followed Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Bayreuth's Festspielen, Vienna Opera, St. Petersburg, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Zürich Opera
Zurich Opera
Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...
, Amsterdam, Munich, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, 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...
and tours with conductor Leo Blech
Leo Blech
Leo Blech was a German opera composer and conductor who is perhaps most famous for his work at the Königliches Schauspielhaus Leo Blech (21 April 1871 – 25 August 1958) was a German opera composer and conductor who is perhaps most famous for his work at the Königliches Schauspielhaus Leo...
in the USA. This ended in 1925 with the illness of Theodor who died on 4 March 1926 aged 46. From 1927 she taught singing at the Stern'sches Konservatorium
Stern conservatory
The Stern Conservatory was a private music school in Berlin with many notable tutors and alumni.-History:It was originally founded in 1850 as the Berliner Musikschule by Julius Stern, Theodor Kullak and Adolf Bernhard Marx. Kullak withdrew from the conservatory in 1855 in order to create a new...
in Berlin, where she herself had studied.
Metzger-Lattermann continued to perform as a Lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er recitalist, often accompanied by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
and Hans Pfitzner
Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...
. She gave her last concerts in 1933 under Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
in Berlin and Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, with the seizure of power by Hitler.
After 1933, under the Nazi regime, Metzger-Lattermann continued to perform for Jewish audiences, on at least one occasion in a Lieder evening with the baritone Erhard Wechselmann
Erhard Wechselmann
Erhard Eduard Wechselmann was a German baritone who was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp.According to Peter Hugh Reed writing in American Record Guide, 1949, he also sang with the Metropolitan Opera in 1890....
, who was also to perish in Auschwitz.
In 1933 the American theatre impresario George Blumental (a former associate of Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein may refer to:*Oscar Hammerstein I , cigar manufacturer, opera impresario and theatre builder*Oscar Hammerstein II , Broadway lyricist, songwriting partner of Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers...
, who in 1917 had tried to set up theatres for American troops in Paris), tried to arrange with Georg Hartmann
Georg Hartmann
Georg Hartmann was a German engineer, instrument maker, author, printer, humanist, churchman, and astronomer....
and Arthur Hirsch to bring over conductor Blech and a troupe of 12 Jewish opera singers to present Wagner's Ring in New York. Hirsch's assistant Otto Metzger was Ottilie's brother and Ottilie was on the list. Blumental's plans came to nothing, partly due to the unavailability of Blech, Klemperer and Walter.
Metzger-Lattermann and her daughter fled to Brussels in 1939, but there were later rounded up by the Nazis and sent to the camps. Sadly, at the time Metzger-Lattermann was already incarcerated, the Opera News magazine of 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...
Guild (1941), which, like most of the American and British media, was unaware of the true seriousness of the Jewish plight in Europe, was relating the following anecdote:
Erda was being sung by Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann, a solemn artist who was never known to smile while on the stage. When her colleagues grew tired of her complacency. Wotan decided that something should be done about it. After his invocation, he asked in a loud stage whisper: "Frau, how do you like your eggs?" Her cue being given. Erda rose from the earth to reply dutifully, "Weiche, Wotan" - "Softly, Wotan"
The exact dates of the deaths of herself and her daughter are unknown.
Bayreuth memorial
During the 1970s a Bayreuth antiquarian bookseller, Peer Baedeker petitioned Winifred WagnerWinifred Wagner
Winifred Wagner was an English woman married to Siegfried Wagner, Richard Wagner's son. She was the effective head of the Wagner family from 1930 to 1945, and a close friend of German dictator Adolf Hitler....
for a plaque to "Richard Breitenfeld
Richard Breitenfeld
Richard Breitenfeld was a German baritone who was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble and was murdered in the Theresienstadt concentration camp....
, Henriette Gottlieb
Henriette Gottlieb
Henriette Gottlieb was a German soprano. She performed the Wagnerian role of Brünhilde in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées of Paris during the performance of Der Ring der Nibelung on 1928, when she was just a young promise...
, Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann - Honoured as festival singers Murdered in Nazi concentration camps" to be installed at Bayreuth.
Recordings
- mp3 Beethoven In questa tomba oscura (Odeon 1908)
- mp3 ♪ Wagner - 'Siegfried': "Stark ruft das Lied" (1908) ♪ (Opera Nederland, with bio in Dutch and photo)