WILHELM
"WILLI" BIRRENKOVEN (COLOGNE, 4 OCTOBER, 1865 – HANSTEDT, 8 MARCH,
1955)
From 1884 to 1888, he studied singing at the Cologne Conservatory. He
made his debut in 1888 at the Düsseldorf Opera House. From 1890 to 1893, he
appeared at the Cologne Opera House, and from 1893 to 1912, he was a member of
the Municipal Theatre in Hamburg. There, he participated in the premieres of
Ferruccio Busoni’s Die Brautwahl
(1902) and Siegfried Wagner’s Sternengebot
(1908).
He became especially renowned as an interpreter of Richard Wagner’s
operas. In 1894, he appeared at the Bayreuth Festival in Lohengrin and Parsifal. Guest performances followed in London, Vienna (Court
Opera, 1904, as Canio in Pagliacci),
Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, and
Bremen.
His most important stage roles included Florestan in Fidelio, Max in Der Freischütz, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Siegfried in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tannhäuser
in Tannhäuser, Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, Pedro in Tiefland by Eugen d'Albert, Otello in
Verdi’s Otello, Siegnot in Die Rose vom Liebesgarten by Hans
Pfitzner, and Samson in Saint-Saëns’ Samson
et Dalila.
He undertook numerous concert tours across Europe and America,
performing in a total of 1,500 stage appearances. Between 1900 and 1906, his
annual salary reached 25,000 marks. At the turn of the century, he was
considered one of the world’s leading tenors. Among his admirers were Gustav
Mahler, Eugen d'Albert, and Ruggero Leoncavallo.
On 30 May 1912, Birrenkoven gave his farewell performance as
Tannhäuser. He then moved to Bochum to take up the post of director at the
local opera house. However, this proved disastrous: the new opera house was
still under construction, and the existing facility was unsuitable for a fully
equipped opera ensemble. Not only was the position a failure, but Birrenkoven
also suffered serious financial losses, having invested 50,000 marks in the
project.
He later returned to Hamburg, where he was forced to work as a singing
teacher to support himself. In addition to his teaching 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 Franz Birrenkoven, were also
well-known opera tenors.
Chronology
of some appearances
1888 Dusseldorf Opera
House
1890-1893 Köln Opera
House
1893-1912
Hamburg Municipal Theatre
1894 Bayreuth festival
Lohengrin (Lohengrin)
1904 Vienna Court Opera Pagliacci (Canio)
TRACKLIST
Prophète (Meyerbeer) Triumphgesang 3-42992 3970r Gramophone, Hamburg
1907
Tannhäuser (Wagner) Inbrunst im Herzen (Romerzählung) 042076 188m
G&T, Hamburg 1904
Tannhäuser (Wagner) Loblied 14803 Pathé, Berlin 1908
Tiefland (d'Albert) Schau' her (Wolfserzählung) 042158 358s
Gramophone, Hamburg 1907
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