Paul Schöffler

Despite having been given birth to in Germany, bass-baritone Paul Schöffler became a favourite in Austria, both in the Vienna Staatsoper with the Salzburg Festival. Apart from Friedrich Schorr, he was unquestionably the finest, many complicated interpreter of Hans Sachs in the documented period. Although his tone of voice could sound somewhat dried out and lacked the imperious audio for Wotan (which he do sing sometimes), it offered him well via an unusually lengthy profession. His Sachs on the Metropolitan Opera in November 1964 was superbly sung, exceptional in its strength, despite the fact that Schöffler was 67 at that time. A live documenting of Strauss’ Daphne manufactured in Vienna that same season confirms the impression. The task of the aristocratic musician, Schöffler’s interpretations of such jobs as Scarpia, Don Giovanni, and Iago had been always distinguished, even though not really stylistically definitive. The years since his pension from leading jobs have not created a remotely equivalent artist. Schöffler examined with Waldemar Stägemann in his indigenous Dresden before planing a trip to Italy to utilize baritone Mario Sammarco. His 1926 stage debut occurred in Dresden in the function from the Herald in Lohengrin, starting an association with this theater that continuing until 1939. In 1939, Schöffler was involved with the Vienna Staatsoper and continued to be there until 1970 when he was 73 years of age. During his lengthy profession, he also sang in London, at Bayreuth, on the Salzburg Celebration (1938 – 1965), in a number of Italian theaters and in the us on the Metropolitan Opera, in SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, and in Chicago. Schöffler’s London debut emerged as Donner within a 1934 Rheingold, executed by Beecham. He was well-received by both public as well as the critics, afterwards confirming the positive initial impression along with his “exceptional” singing from the name function in Weinberger’s Schwanda, the Bagpiper. In 1936, he sang Scarpia and, using the going to Dresden Opera, Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (sung in German as Die Hochzeit) as well as the name role in a single functionality of Don Giovanni. In the Mozart operas, he was praised for both great performing and histrionic aptitude. He undertook such various other jobs in London as Jochanaan, Kurwenal, the Rheingold Wotan (referred to as “light-weight”), and, pursuing WWII, Don Giovanni (“Germanic”), Don Alfonso, and Pizarro using the going to Vienna Staatsoper firm. Using the Royal Opera Home firm, he repeated his Kurwenal and Rheingold Wotan and added Gunther and his genial Sachs. At Salzburg, Schöffler made the name function in Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod in 1947, and, five years afterwards, he premiered Jupiter in Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae. Schöffler’s initial American stage performances emerged well after WWII, when the vocalist had been in his early fifties. His Met debut was on January 26, 1950, as Jochanaan, a job he sang towards the magnificent Salome of Ljuba Welitsch a couple weeks afterwards. Schöffler’s functionality was praised as that of an excellent artist, delineating the type with cleverness and participation. The bass-baritone encountered off against Welitsch in two various other productions, placing his Don Giovanni at chances with her Donna Anna and, being a “brutish “Scarpia, menacing her fiery Tosca. More than nine periods, Schöffler sang a complete of 91 shows. His 14 assignments included Pizarro, Amfortas, Kurwenal, Oreste, as well as the Grand Inquisitor. SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA heard him, as well briefly, in Wagner and Strauss, as do Chicago. Although Schöffler’s tone of voice lacked a sensuous timbre, its heat and firmness remaining an optimistic impression, while his musicianship and creative integrity had been unfailingly of the best order.