#wittrisch

[historicalsingers]

Marcel Wittrisch and Hans Reinmar sing La Forza del Destino, translated into German as Die Macht des Schicksals (1936)

To us, the German translation sounds odd, but it made perfect sense in the context of the "Verdi renaissance" ushered in by Franz Werfel's 1924 novel Verdi, Roman der Oper. Wittrisch and Reinmar may not be true to Verdi's language, but they certainly give an exemplary reading of his music.

[historicalsingers]

Dennis King sings Auber's Fra Diavolo in the Laurel and Hardy movie The Devil's Brother (1930)

Marcel Wittrisch is a better singer, but the comic spirit of Auber's delightful opera has rarely been so well captured.

[historicalsingers]

Marcel Wittrisch sings Auber's Fra Diavolo in German

The quintessential German tenor in quintessentially French music!

[historicalsingers]

Marcel Wittrisch and Margarete Teschemacher sing Les Huguenots in German (1932)

This magnificent recording was suppressed by the Nazis and the original German masters were destroyed, all because Meyerbeer was Jewish.

The more I listen to Meyerbeer's music as sung by outstanding performers like these, the more obvious it becomes to me that his current low standing among operatic composers is largely due to the antisemitism of early twentieth-century critics. (Present-day commentators who disparage him no longer know what his music is supposed to sound like, as his operas are so seldom performed today by singers of this caliber.) To an unbiased listener, historical recordings attest that Meyerbeer was a major composer and that Les Huguenots is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century opera.