From 1884 to 1888 he studied singing at the
conservatory of Köln. He made his debut
in 1888 at the Opera House of Dusseldorf. From 1890 to 1893 he appeared at the Opera
House of Köln, from 1893 to 1912 at the Municipal
Theatre of Hamburg. Here he sang among other things in the premieres of the
operas ‘’Die Brautwahl’’ of F. Busoni (1902) and ‘’Sternengebot’’ of Siegfried Wagner (1908). He became known
in particular as an famous interpreter of R. Wagner's operas; In 1894 at the Bayreuth festival he appeared in ‘’Lohengrin’’
and ‘’Parsifal’’. Guest performances followed in London ,
Vienna (1904. Court
Opera, Canio in ‘’Pagliacci’’), Amsterdam , Berlin , Munich , Karlsruhe , Hannover, Köln,
Frankfurt a. M. and Bremen . His most important stage roles were
the Florestan in ‘’Fidelio’’, Max in ‘’Freischütz’’, Siegmund in ‘’Walkure’’, Siegfried in ‘’Der
Ring des Nibelungen’’, Tannhäuser in ‘’Tannhauser’’, Tristan in ‘’Tristan und
isolde’’, Pedro in ‘’Tiefland’’ of
E. d'Albert, Otello in Verdi’s ‘’Otello’’, Siegnot
in ‘’ Die Rose vom Liebesgarten’’ of
Hans Pfitzner and Samson in ‘’Samson et Dalila’’ of Saint-Saëns. he made numerous concert tours in Europe and America Bochum Hamburg ,
where he was forced to work as a singing teacher to make ends meet. In addition
to this income, he received a small pension from the Hamburg State Opera, a
monthly honorarium of 100 marks. In the 1930s, he retired to Hanstedt where he
died in 1955. His brothers, Fritz Birrenkoven (1876-1939) and The third brother, Franz Birrenkoven, was also a
known opera tenors.
Chronology of some appearances
1888 Dusseldorf
1890-1893 Köln
Opera House
1893-1912 Hamburg Municipal Theatre
1894 Bayreuth
RECORDINGS FOR SALE
Pathé, Berlin 1908?
No comments:
Post a Comment