Description

ANNA MARIA KRULL (ROSTOCK, 12 JANUARY, 1876 – SCHWERIN, 14 JUNE, 1947)

 

 

 

 

Her father was a music director. She studied with Hertha Brämer in Berlin and made her debut in 1898 at the Stadttheater in Plauen (Saxony) as Agathe in Der Freischütz. In 1900, the director of the Dresden Court Opera, Count von Seebach, heard her in Berlin and engaged her for his theater, where she enjoyed a highly successful career from 1901 to 1910.

On May 29, 1901, she appeared in Dresden in the premiere of Paderewski’s opera Manru. On November 22 of the same year, she created the role of Diemuth in the premiere of Richard Strauss’s Feuersnot. She later took part in several other Dresden premieres: Leo Blech’s Das war ich (That Was I) on October 6, 1902; his Alpenkönig und Menschenfeind (The Alpine King and the Misanthrope) on October 1, 1903; and Max von Schillings’s Der Moloch (The Moloch) on December 8, 1906.

Strauss also wished her to create the title role in the premiere of his Salome, but, according to house tradition, the prima donna Marie Witte prevailed in securing the role. Nevertheless, on February 25, 1909, Annie Krull achieved a spectacular triumph when she created the title role in Strauss’s Elektra in Dresden under the direction of Ernst von Schuch. In 1910, she repeated the part at London’s Covent Garden.

From 1910 to 1912, she was engaged at the Hoftheater in Mannheim and afterward appeared only occasionally as a guest. In the first decade of the 20th century, she sang as a guest at the court operas of Stuttgart (1901), Berlin (several times between 1903 and 1909), Munich (1905, 1907), and Vienna (1909 as Elektra), as well as at the opera houses of Leipzig (1906) and Cologne (1905), the Court Theatre in Karlsruhe (1912), the Deutsches Theater in Prague (1907), and the Deutsches Theater in Brno (1905, 1908).

Her repertoire included Leonore in Fidelio; Senta, Elsa, and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser; Sieglinde; Isolde; Margiana in The Barber of Bagdad; Martha in Tiefland; and Valentine in Les Huguenots.

She later lived in Schwerin, where she worked as a teacher. In 1904 she married the bass Max Flor. A dramatic soprano of exceptional expressiveness, she was also praised for her outstanding stage presence and acting ability. Annie Krull’s voice is preserved on recordings, including a complete second act of Tannhäuser (Odeon, Berlin 1909, as Elisabeth), as well as Edison cylinders and Pathé discs.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

Tannhäuser

Berlin – 1909 – Eduard Künneke (c)

 

Character Artist

Tannhäuser Fritz Vogelstrom

Elisabeth Annie Krull

Wolfram Hermann Weil

Landgraf Lèon Rains

Walther Walter Kirchhoff

Biterolf Karl Armster

Heinrich der Schreiber Josef Schoeffel

Reinmar von Zweter Arthur Neuendahm

 

Act II

Dich, teure Halle

O Fürstin!

Gar viel und schön

Blick’ ich umher

Dir, Göttin der Liebe

Der Unglücksel’ge

Ein furchtbares Verbrechen