Description

FRIDA LEIDER (BERLIN, 18 APRIL, 1888 – BERLIN, 4 JUNE, 1975)

 

 

 

 

Her father was a carpenter. She initially worked as an employee at a Berlin bank but studied singing in her free time. She completed her training with Otto Schwarz in Berlin. In 1915, she made her debut at the Halle (Saale) City Theater as Venus in Tannhäuser. She attracted little attention in Halle or during a guest performance in Nuremberg as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre. From 1916 to 1918, she was engaged at the Rostock City Theater, and from 1918 to 1919 at the Königsberg Opera House (East Prussia).

From 1919 to 1923, she sang her major Wagner roles at the Hamburg City Theater (Opera House), including the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Aida, and, already in her inaugural role, Leonore in Fidelio. In 1923, she toured Holland with a German opera company under Cornelis Bronsgeest. There, she also appeared in Amsterdam in 1925 in the Dutch premiere of R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.

In 1923, she was appointed to the Berlin State Opera, where she had already sung Isolde in Tristan und Isolde in 1921. She soon established herself there as one of the leading Wagnerian singers of her generation, though she also performed other demanding roles such as Dido in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Leonore in Fidelio, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. In 1924, she took part in the premiere of Ernst Krenek’s opera Die Zwingburg.

At La Scala in Milan, she sang Brünnhilde in Italian-language performances of the Ring (1927–1928). From 1930 to 1932, she appeared at the Grand Opéra in Paris; from 1931 and 1934 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; and from 1928 to 1932 at the Chicago Opera. Her roles there included Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Rachel in Halévy’s La Juive, Donna Anna, Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Leonore in Fidelio, the title role in Max von Schillings’s Mona Lisa, and her principal Wagnerian heroines.

She also appeared at the Bayreuth Festival from 1928 to 1938 in her Wagner roles—Brünnhilde, Isolde, and Kundry—and at the Waldoper Festival in Sopot in 1924–1925 and 1927. Between 1924 and 1938, she was an annual guest at Covent Garden in London, where she appeared as Senta, Venus, Brünnhilde, Kundry, Isolde, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Armida (Gluck), and Leonore in Il trovatore. Further engagements took her to the Grand Opéra in Paris, the state operas of Vienna, Munich, and Stuttgart, as well as Stockholm and Brussels.

At the Metropolitan Opera in New York (debut role: Isolde), she appeared in twenty performances of five Wagner roles during the 1933–34 season. Toward the end of the 1930s, she faced increasing difficulties in Germany because her husband, the violinist Rudolf Demann, was Jewish; the couple eventually had to flee to Switzerland. Despite all threats, she steadfastly refused to separate from him.

Her last stage performances were in 1940 at the Berlin State Opera. After she was banned from further stage appearances in Germany, she concentrated on giving recitals, often performing duets with contralto Margarete Klose. After World War II, she gave several concerts and also staged operas, including Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel in Berlin in 1945. She then focused primarily on teaching. From 1945 to 1952, she directed the vocal studio of the Berlin State Opera, and from 1948 to 1958 she held a professorship at the Berlin Academy of Music. She published her memoirs under the title Das war mein Teil (That Was My Part) (Berlin, 1959).

She possessed a dramatic soprano voice of great beauty combined with compelling expressive intensity, and was regarded as one of the greatest Wagner singers of all time.

Recordings: Polydor (acoustic, 1923–1926; later also early electric recordings) and HMV (all recordings from about 1930 onward; additional song recordings for HMV Electrola, 1942). On Discocorp: scenes from Götterdämmerung (Bayreuth, 1937) and a similar live recording from London, 1938.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Ah! Perfido (Beethoven) 65745 682as Polydor, Berlin 1922-03

Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss) Es gibt ein Reich 72976 883az Polydor, Berlin 1925-03

Armide (Gluck) Ah! Si la liberté D1547 CR2012-2A HMV, London 1928-05-11

Auf dem Wasser zu singen (Schubert) DB 5625 (2RA 4840-1) HMV, 1941

Der Engel (Wagner) 72979 21be Polydor, Berlin 1925/1926 (el)

Der Nussbaum (Schumann) unpublished (2RA 5333) HMV, 1942

Don Carlo (Verdi) O don fatale (It) 72998 22be Polydor, Berlin 1925/1926 (el)

Don Giovanni (Mozart) Der Hölle Rache 72976 764az Polydor, Berlin 1925-02

Don Giovanni (Mozart) Or sai che l’onore D1547 CR2010-2 HMV, London 1928-05-11

Erlkönig (Schubert) DB 5625 (2RA 4841-1) HMV, 1941

Fidelio (Beethoven) Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin… Komm’, o Hoffnung 65743, 65743, 599½as, 600as Polydor, Berlin 1922 (early)

Fliegende Holländer (Wagner) Ballade der Senta 72978 881az Polydor, Berlin 1925-03

Frühlingstraum (Schubert) unpublished (2RA 5332) HMV, 1942

Götterdämmerung (Wagner) Schweigt eures Jammers (w. Marherr-Wagner) EJ420 CLR4724-2 HMV, Berlin 1928-11-08

Götterdämmerung (Wagner) Starke Scheite schichtet mir dort… O Ihr, der eide heilige Hüte… Fliegt heim, ihr Raben EJ420, EJ421, EJ421, CLR4666-2, CLR4667-3, CLR4668-1 HMV, Berlin 1928-10-26

Götterdämmerung (Wagner) Zu neuen Taten… Lass ich, Liebste, dich hier (w. Soot) 72984, 72984, 786az, 787az Polydor, Berlin 1925-02

Im Treibhaus (Wagner) 72979 20be Polydor, Berlin 1925/1926 (el)

Meine Rose (Schumann) DB 5626 (2RA 4839-1) HMV, 1941

Mignon (Wolf) unpublished (2 RA 5335) HMV, 1942

Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) Heil’ge Quelle 65744 603as Polydor, Berlin 1922 (early)

Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) Nur zu flüchtig bist du entschwunden 65744 604½as Polydor, Berlin 1922 (early)

Oberon (Weber) Ozean! Du Ungeheuer!… Die Winde spielen leis’ 65625, 65625, 605as, 606as Polydor, Berlin 1922 (early)