# The Legendary German Lyric-Dramatic Soprano Meta Seinemeyer (1895-1929)



## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

The biographical notes on Meta Seinemeyer comes from www.cantabile-subito.de:

"Meta Seinemeyer was born in Berlin in 1895 and was the daughter of a police officer and received vocal tuition by Nikolaus Rothmühl and Ernst Grenzebach. After an audition in 1918 she was immediately engaged at the German Opera in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Singing lyric roles in the next seven years, her voice matured, and she also appeared in more dramatic roles. Like many other German singers of the post-war era, she tried to get an engagement in the United States. When the Manhattan Opera House started a "German Company" in 1923/24, she and other German artists, such as Friedrich Schorr, Alexander Kipnis, Robert Hutt, Friedrich Plaschke and Elsa Alsen, toured North America. She was tremendously successful as Eva. In November 1924 she gave a guest performance in Dresden as Marguerite which led to a permanent engagement there. Together with singers like Tino Pattiera, Ivar Andrésen and Robert Burg she played an important part in the Verdi Renaissance that started in Dresden in the 1920s. Her most successful achievements: Leonore in Franz Werfel's German version of La Forza del Destino, Aida, Desdemona, Tosca, Mimì, Madame Butterfly and Marguerite. She added Maddalena in Andrea Chénier and Manon Lescaut to her repertoire. Her partner in all these roles was the passionate Tino Pattiera with whom she recorded several duets. In 1929 Meta Seinemeyer was invited to sing at Covent Garden as Sieglinde, Eva and Elsa. Soon after her return from London she fell seriously ill with leukemia. On her deathbed she married the conductor and pianist Frieder Weissmann, with whom she had often worked in recitals and recordings."


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Seinemeyer in Amelia's solo scene "Ecco l'orrido campo...Ma dall'arido stelo divulsa" from Act 2 of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (sung here in German), recorded on 14 January 1929 for Parlophone.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Seinemeyer in "Ritorna vincitor!" from Act 1 of Verdi's Aida (sung here in German as "Als Sieger kehre heim"). The recording was made in 1926 for Parlophone.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Seinemeyer in " Tu che la vanità" from Verdi's Don Carlo, recorded for Parlophone in 1927.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Seinemeyer in the Countess Almaviva's solo scene, "E Susanna non vien...Dove sono" (sung here in German) from Act 3 of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. The recording was made for Parlophone in May 1927.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Seinemeyer in "Vissi d`Arte" from Puccini's Tosca, recorded for Parlophone in 1928.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Meta Seinemeyer in the lied "Die Nacht" by Anton Rubinstein, recorded for Parlophone in 1929.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Meta Seinemeyer in Liszt's "Liebestraum" No.3, 'O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst' (O love, so long as you can!), recorded in 1929.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Seinemeyer in the lied, "Traum durch die Dämmerung", Op 29 No. 1 by Richard Strauss (set to text by Otto Julius Bierbaum). The recording was made for Parlophone in 1928.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

lyric-dramatic? is that different from spinto? 
anyway, lovely voice. very _Germanic_, both in vocal color and style. expressive, yet simple, even a bit laconic.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

If you want to know, there is an article to explain it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fach#Lyrischer_Sopran

Jugendlich dramatischer Sopran - English equivalent: lyric dramatic soprano
Range: From about A below middle C to the C two octaves above middle C
Description: The Italian version of this fach is the spinto, which literally translated means pushed. However this is not accurate in terms of these singers' vocal production. A lyric dramatic soprano has a lyric instrument that can also create big sounds, cutting through an orchestral or choral climax. This voice is sometimes referred to as a "young" or "youthful" dramatic soprano although this term doesn't necessarily refer to the singer's age but rather to the tonal quality of the voice. This fach is more clearly delineated in the German system than in the American system. Depending on the singer, however, this voice type can be versatile, as it lies at neither extreme of the soprano spectrum. Spintos are occasionally able to take on lighter mezzo roles, or, conversely, lyric and even coloratura roles.

However, I prefer to listen to the singer as I don't need to categorise their voice types


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Headphone Hermit said:


> If you want to know, there is an article to explain it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fach#Lyrischer_Sopran
> 
> Jugendlich dramatischer Sopran - English equivalent: lyric dramatic soprano
> Range: From about A below middle C to the C two octaves above middle C
> ...


interesting, so, if I understand this correctly Leontyne Price is a spinto soprano, but would not be considered a Germanic lyric-dramatic soprano because she has a much darker, mature timbre. on the other hand, a singer like, say, Joan Sutherland, could possibly fall into this category because she has a similar weight to a spinto soprano, but with a brighter, more youthful color (in fact, the way they describe it, it almost sounds more like a dramatic coloratura soprano than an Italianate spinto soprano).


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Lyric-dramatic soprano, _n._ 1. a soprano who ought to be singing Elsa or Elisabeth but who tries to sing Isolde and Brunnhilde because after all these operas have to be sung by somebody and thus ends her career ten years prematurely; 2. such a soprano who does not end her career ten years prematurely but who would do us all a favor if she did.


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## Viardots (Oct 4, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Lyric-dramatic soprano, _n._ 1. a soprano who ought to be singing Elsa or Elisabeth but who tries to sing Isolde and Brunnhilde because after all these operas have to be sung by somebody and thus ends her career ten years prematurely; 2. such a soprano who does not end her career ten years prematurely but who would do us all a favor if she did.


Seinemeyer in the love duet between Sieglinde and Siegmund from Act 1 of Wagner's Die Walküre, beginning with the passage "Der männer sippe sass hier im Saal", recorded for Parlophone in April 1929. Sieglinde was among the roles that Seinemeyer was invited to sing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1929, not long before her untimely death at the age of 33 due to leukemia. Curt Taucher sings Siegmund in this recording - he is rather lacklustre, so it is Seinemeyer who really shines here.






Seinemeyer in "Mild und leise" (Liebestod) from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, recorded for Parlophone in 1928. Before her untimely death in 1929, she never sang Isolde on stage, so this studio recording is merely an indicator of what might have been had she lived on and been able to include Isolde in her stage repertoire.


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