# A Tauber confusion



## Tony Vella (Aug 25, 2010)

I am asking this question here because during the war, I'm told, a great many documents were lost and getting information of times before WWII from the Dresden Opera is like pulling teeth. I'll explain my confusion:

Richard Tauber had two five-year contracts with the Dresden Opera: 1913-1918 and 1918-1923. In 1922, we are told, while still under contract to DO, he signed a contract with the Wiener Staatoper for which he was penalized by DO and "looked down upon". Yet, in 1924 he appeared four times in Dresden (Carmen, La Bohème, etc.), in 1925 he appeared six times (Cavalleria, Traviata, etc.), and in 1926 he appeared eight times including the premiere of the German Turandot. 

Now that's not bad for a persona-non-grata, I must admit. So how come he gets to play so many roles after deliberately offending the powers that be at the DO?

Any serious opinions, directions, advice, gossip, appreciated in advance.


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## larifari (Sep 5, 2011)

Richard Tauber was far better suited for operetta.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

Really?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

larifari said:


> Richard Tauber was far better suited for operetta.


Nonsense, he was one of the best opera and lieder singers who ever lived. I don't think that the Dresden Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden hire many operetta singers full time. He gave the first performance of Turandot in Germany I believe.


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## Tony Vella (Aug 25, 2010)

On July 4, 1926, Tauber replaced the ailing Curt Taucher at the the Dresden Opera for the premiere of Turandot in German. Anne Roselle sang Turandot with Fritz Busch (1890-1951) conducting. Twenty minute applause ... not bad for an operetta singer, what?


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## larifari (Sep 5, 2011)

Tauber's best friend was the King of all operetta, Franz Lehar.
Tauber, himself composed an operetta, but never an opera. 

Tauber was to singing what Emil Zatopec was for running. Unbeatable on 5,000 and 10,000 meters and one lucky victory in the marathon. Kind of like Tauber in operetta - unbeatable - and one standing ovation in opera in Dresden.

And what is the significance of the Dresden Opera, compared to the Milano Scala, or the Metropolitan or the Apollo? Nothing more than the much maligned - at least on this forum - Hungarian State Opera House.


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## Tony Vella (Aug 25, 2010)

In 1923, when Tauber started the first year of his Vienna contract, Richard Strauss was director of the Theater an der Wien. When Tauber told Strauss that he wanted to accept an offer to sing Frasquita, Strauss was very angry at Tauber for “slipping into less serious music” and the relationship between the two men chilled noticeable (according to Rethberg) for the rest of that year and the next. Does that sound like a one-hit operatic tenor?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

larifari said:


> Tauber's best friend was the King of all operetta, Franz Lehar.
> Tauber, himself composed an operetta, but never an opera.
> 
> Tauber was to singing what Emil Zatopec was for running. Unbeatable on 5,000 and 10,000 meters and one lucky victory in the marathon. Kind of like Tauber in operetta - unbeatable - and one standing ovation in opera in Dresden.
> ...


I sugest you get your opera knowledge up to speed and I note you make no mention of the Vienna State Opera or Covent Garden.
"He sang plenty of good light music as well as plenty of Mozart and Schubert and a wide range of opera, German, French and Italian. Indeed his repertoire on records is the broadest of all the tenors under discussion...the consistency of Tauber's records is as remarkable as their distinction. There are few tenors who have left a better legacy". John Steane, "the Grand Tradition".
"There were German tenors at this time with larger voices...but none was a greater musician or a finer artist than Richard Tauber. Criticism of him was difficult , his exceptionable musicianship was tranparently obvious and had been widely praised by composers such as Richard strauss and conductors like Beecham...in a very real sense Tauber was the successor to Caruso, like him and unlike Gigli and Martinelli he succeeded equally as a singer of opera,art songs and popular light music." Michael Scott,"The Record of Singing".
These books are considered definitive publications on singing.
As for the Dresden State Opera, Conductors have included Richard Wagner, Fritz Reiner, Fritz busch,Karl Boehm, Joseph Keilberth, Rudolf Kempe, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis.
Opera premieres: Wagner: Rienzi", "Der Fliegende Hollaender", "Tannhauser".
R.strauss: "Salome", "Elektra", "Der Rosenkavalier". "Arabella".
How does that compare with the Hungarian lot?
The Vienna State Opera has a history dating back to the mid 19th century.
directors include: Gustav Mahler, Felix Weingartner, Richard Strauss, Karl Boehm, Herbert von Karajan. Lorin Maazel, Franz Welser-Most (present).
Prominent artists : Theo Adam, Giacomo Aragall, Teresa Berganza, Montserrat Caballe, Maria Callas, Jose Carreras,Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano, Placido Domingo, Juan Diego Flores, Mirella Freni, Angela Gheorghiu, Tito Gobbi, Thomas Hampson, Hans Hotter, Alfredo Kraus, Erich Kunz, Anna Moffo, Birgit Nilsson, Jessye Norman, Luciano Paverotti, Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, Renata Tebaldi, Fritz Wunderlich.
Conductors: Kurt Adler, Ernest Ansermet, Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Chailly, Victor de Sabata, Antal Dorati, Furtwaengler, John Eliot gardiner, Carlos Kleiber, Erich Kleiber, Josef Krips, Rafael Kubelik, Pierre Monteaux, Fritz Reiner, Georg Solti, Igor Stavinsky, Richard Strauss, Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Antonio Pappano.
The Vienna Philharmonic is drawn from the opera orchestra.


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