Georg Hann

Sometimes known as a bass, but really while bass-baritone, Georg Hann possessed the dark, biting shade to complement the weightiness of several true basses. His luxurious stage personality frequently led him into caprice as he forced and drawn the music about, creating riveting characterizations that not really infrequently veered in to the lurid. Although a Viennese by delivery, Hann liked his biggest successes in Munich, commencing an array of both bass and baritone functions there. He sang until his untimely loss of life at age 53, showing through the this past year of his existence the same out-sized character that were his brand. Hann studied in the Vienna Academy with Theodor Lierhammer before becoming a member of the Munich Staatsoper in 1927; he continued to be with that organization for the others of his existence. After his 1931 Salzburg Event debut (as Pizarro in Fidelio), Hann continuing to perform for the reason that location until 1949. In 1947, he was among the star-filled Salzburg solid (Julius Patzak, Maria Cebotari, Paul Schöffler, Ludwig Weber) to surface in the globe premiere of Gottfried von Einem’s Danton’s Tod. The vocalist had made an early on appearance at London’s Covent Backyard in 1924 when he was scarcely observed amidst Göta Ljungberg’s Salome and additional such performers as Maria Olszewska and Emil Shipper. Time for Covent Backyard after WWII using the Vienna Staatsoper, Hann made an appearance being a “buffo” Leporello and, as Pizarro, menaced a Fidelio ensemble including Julius Patzak, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Ludwig Weber, most of them propelled with the fiery performing of Clemens Krauss. Furthermore to Munich, Vienna, and London, Hann sang in Paris, Berlin, and Milan, though he under no circumstances undertook an American profession. Similarly renowned for dramatic and comic jobs, his Falstaff in Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor was justly celebrated as was his Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier (though it was his Faninal that was conserved on the wartime recording of this opera). He sang both Papageno and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, was a forceful (if rough-toned) Amfortas in Parsifal, as well as sang the name function in Rigoletto, despite its high tessitura. Probably best-known on documenting for his La Roche in Strauss’ Capriccio (a job he developed in Munich in 1942) and his Daland within a 1944 Fliegende Holländer offering the magisterial Dutchman of Hans Hotter, Hann was captured on a great many other wartime recordings protecting some frantic shows through the bass baritone and his co-workers. Among these uncommon products, all sung in German, certainly are a 1945 Cavalleria Rusticana where Hann sings Alfio towards the Santuzza of Hilde Scheppan as well as the Turiddu of a Hans Hopf. A 12 months earlier, Hann experienced sung Tonio (a job the composer experienced originally designed for a bass) using the potent Canio of Helge Rosvaenge and Hilde Scheppan, this time around as Nedda. Possibly the prize from the great deal is usually a 1944 Tosca where Hann’s Scarpia hectors the Tosca of Hildegarde Ranczak to the idea of dramatic annihilation. A much less desperate-sounding Aida from 1938 maintained Hann’s Amonasro inside a solid providing the Aida of Margarete Teschemacher as well as the Radames of Helge Rosvaenge. Furthermore to performances documented live, Hann produced numerous discs of varied opera arias and tunes, all taking his lengthy range and vibrant singing.