Helena Braun

Helena Braun
Black-and-white portrait of Helena Braun
Braun, c. 1950
Born(1903-03-20)20 March 1903
Düsseldorf, Prussia, German Empire
Died2 September 1990(1990-09-02) (aged 87)
Sonthofen, Bavaria, Germany
OccupationOperatic soprano
Years active1928–1959
Organisation(s)Bavarian State Opera
Vienna State Opera
SpouseFerdinand Frantz
Signature
Helena Braun's signature

Helena Braun (20 March 1903 – 2 September 1990) was a German dramatic soprano. She made her stage debut in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 1928 and joined the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in 1939 and 1940, respectively. She became known for Wagnerian roles such as Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen and Ortrud in Lohengrin.

Braun performed at the Metropolitan Opera for a brief period in 1949–1950 with her husband, Ferdinand Frantz, as a temporary replacement for Helen Traubel who had laryngitis. She continued singing in Munich in the 1950s with several international guest performances, and retired from opera after Frantz's death in 1959.

Early life

Helena Braun was born in Düsseldorf on 20 March 1903.[1] She was initially trained as a mezzo-soprano and studied with Heinrich van Helden, a local baritone in Düsseldorf. Her early studies included roles such as the title character of Bizet's Carmen and Azucena from Verdi's Il trovatore.[2][3] She also trained in Cologne and in Vienna with Hermann Gallos and Hans Duhan.[4][5]

Career

Braun's stage debut was in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Theater Koblenz in 1928.[2][4] She performed at several smaller theatres over the next decade, joining the Bielefeld Opera in 1930, the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1932, and the Wiesbaden Opera in 1933. During this time she switched to dramatic soprano roles. In 1939, she performed at the Zoppot Festspiele as Brünnhilde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. She was a member of the Vienna State Opera from 1939 to 1949, and of the Bavarian State Opera from 1940 until her retirement in 1959.[4]

She created the title role of Rudolf Wagner-Régeny's Johanna Balk in Vienna on 4 April 1941.[6] The opera was met with a hostile public response for its perceived anti-fascist themes and apparent influence of the German-Jewish composer Kurt Weill, as well as its unconventional musical elements.[7][8] However, the German musicologist Dieter Härtwig later praised the expressiveness of Braun's performances.[9] That same year she returned to the Zoppot Festspiele as Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin. She sang at the 1941 and 1942 Salzburg Festivals as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni and as the Countess in Figaro, respectively.[4] In reviews of the 1942 recording, critics later characterized Braun as a "better-than-average" Countess but ranked her performance below those of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Lisa Della Casa, and Kiri Te Kanawa.[10][11]

Braun was married to the German bass-baritone Ferdinand Frantz and accompanied him to New York City "just for the trip" when he sang with the Metropolitan Opera.[12][13] On 21 December 1949, a week after Frantz's debut at the Met, Braun made her own Met debut when she assumed the role of Brünnhilde in Die Walküre on four hours' notice after Helen Traubel became ill with laryngitis.[14] Astrid Varnay, who was usually Traubel's replacement, was also unavailable.[15] Howard Taubman of The New York Times reported that the audience members, who were initially disappointed by Traubel's absence, were heartened by Braun's performance opposite Frantz, who sang as Wotan. Taubman applauded Braun's confident performance and concluded: "Here was a Brünnhilde who acted and sang as if she belonged in a performance of a great music-drama in a great opera house."[14] The success of her performance earned her a two-month contract with the Met to continue singing as Brünnhilde and other Wagnerian roles.[2]

She continued performing with the Bavarian State Opera in the 1950s.[5] Her guest performances included the Palais Garnier in 1950, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1952 as Brünnhilde, and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in 1953 as Ortrud. Other Wagnerian roles in her repertoire were Kundry in Parsifal, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, and Venus in Tannhäuser.[4] Braun's roles dwindled after 1956 when she was replaced as Brünnhilde by Birgit Nilsson in Munich; Frantz protested the replacement by refusing to sing as Wotan.[5]

Retirement

Braun retired from the opera after Frantz's death in 1959. She gave a farewell performance as Ortrud in Munich that year.[5] In her later life, she moved several times and lived in Hohenpeißenberg, Wiesbaden, Sulzberg (in Oberallgäu), and Sonthofen. Braun died at her home in Sonthofen on 2 September 1990, at the age of 87.[4][5]

Recordings

The Opera Quarterly named Braun among a group of "major singers heard on disc only sporadically".[16] In addition to the full-length opera recordings in the following list, she also recorded selections from Wagner's Götterdämmerung, Der fliegende Holländer, and Parsifal,[17][18] Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide, and Borodin's Prince Igor.[16]

Year Role Other cast Conductor
Opera house and orchestra 		Label Ref.
1942 Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
(The Countess) 		Hans Hotter
Erich Kunz
Irma Beilke
Gerda Sommerschuh
Gustav Neidlinger
Res Fischer
Josef Witt 		Clemens Krauss
Vienna Philharmonic, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Recorded at the 1942 Salzburg Festival 		Preiser Records [10]
1949 Wagner
Die Walküre
(Brünnhilde) 		Hilde Konetzni
Rosette Anday
Günther Treptow
Ferdinand Frantz
Herbert Alsen 		Rudolf Moralt
Vienna Symphony 		Myto Records [19]
1950 Wagner
Tristan und Isolde
(Isolde) 		Günther Treptow
Margarete Klose
Paul Schöffler 		Hans Knappertsbusch
Bavarian State Opera 		Orfeo [20]
1952 Wagner
Lohengrin
(Ortrud) 		Lorenz Fehrenberger
Annelies Kupper
Ferdinand Frantz 		Eugen Jochum
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra 		Preiser Records [21]
1952 Wagner
Tristan und Isolde
(Isolde) 		Günther Treptow
Ferdinand Frantz
Rudolf Großmann
Margarete Klose 		Erich Kleiber
Bavarian State Opera 		Myto Records [22]

References

  1. ^ Forbes, Elizabeth (1 December 1992). "Braun, Helena". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O011284. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
  2. ^ a b c Spiegel, Irving (23 December 1949). "Opera Substitute Gets a Contract". The New York Times. p. 17. ProQuest 105875127.
  3. ^ Heinzen, Carl (1928). "Musikleben: Düsseldorf". Die Musik (in German). 20 (2): 699. OL ia:DieMusik20jg2hj1928.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2003). "Braun, Helena". Großes Sängerlexikon (in German). Munich: K. G. Saur Verlag. p. 573. ISBN 978-3-598-11598-1.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Helena Braun; Obituary". The Times. 11 September 1990. Gale A116870873.
  6. ^ "Johanna Balk am 04.04.1941" (in German). Vienna State Opera. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  7. ^ Levi, Erik (1994). Music in the Third Reich. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-312-10381-1.
  8. ^ Osborne, Richard (April 2017). "Review of The Political Orchestra". Gramophone. Vol. 94, no. 1147. pp. 122–123. Gale A492222141.
  9. ^ Härtwig, Dieter (1965). Rudolf Wagner-Régeny: Der Opernkomponist [Rudolf Wagner-Régeny: The Opera Composer] (in German). Berlin: Henschelverlag. p. 48. OCLC 8740131.
  10. ^ a b Greene, David Mason (January 1995). "Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro by Hans Hotter, Helena Braun, Erich Kunz, Irma Beilke, Gerda Somerschuh, Gustav Neidlinger, Res Fischer and Josef Witt under Clemens Krauss". American Record Guide. 58 (1): 254. ProQuest 223426135.
  11. ^ Moses, Kurt (July 2001). "Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro". American Record Guide. 64 (4). Gale A77197839.
  12. ^ Kolodin, Irving (1966). The Metropolitan Opera, 1883–1966: A Candid History (4th ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 488. OCLC 273914.
  13. ^ "German Soprano In America To Be With Husband Almost Steals The Show At The Met". The Clarion-Ledger. 23 December 1949. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b Taubman, Howard (22 December 1949). "Traubel Ill, 'Unknown' Takes Role At Metropolitan on 4-Hour Notice". The New York Times. p. 1. ProQuest 105875888.
  15. ^ "Metropolitan Opera Stars To Sing At Falls Concert". The Sheboygan Press. 30 January 1950. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ a b Pines, Roger (1997). "Wiener Staatsoper Live: A survey of the historic Koch Schwann series". The Opera Quarterly. 14 (1): 45–66. doi:10.1093/oq/14.1.45. ProQuest 237015933.
  17. ^ Innaurato, Albert (13 April 1996). "Vienna State Opera Live, Vol. 22 / Hans Hotter – Early recordings". Opera News. 60 (15): 53. ProQuest 224263654.
  18. ^ Pines, Roger (2003). "Parsifal. Richard Wagner". The Opera Quarterly. 19 (4): 814–816. doi:10.1093/oq/kbg104.
  19. ^ Zakariasen, Bill (5 April 1997). "Wagner: Die Walkure". Opera News. 61 (14). Gale A19263054.
  20. ^ Luten, C. J. (15 April 1995). "Wagner: Tristan und Isolde". Opera News. 59 (15). Gale A16802298.
  21. ^ McKelvey, John (March–April 2005). "Wagner: Lohengrin". American Record Guide. 68 (2). Gale A138755568.
  22. ^ Malisch, Kurt (2005). "'Unausführbar' – 'was Furchtbares' – 'Gelingen des Unmöglichen': Tristan und Isolde im discographischen Vergleich" ['Impracticable' – 'something terrible' – 'success of the impossible': a discographic comparison of Tristan und Isolde]. In Bermbach, Udo (ed.). Schwerpunkt: Tristan und Isolde [Focus: Tristan und Isolde] (in German). Königshausen & Neumann. p. 212. ISBN 978-3-8260-2786-4.