Margot Guilleaume (Soprano)

Born: January 12, 1910 - Hamburg, Germany
Died: June 2004 - Hamburg, Germany

The German soprano, Margot Guilleaume, studied music and singing in her hometown Hamburg. She was first a choir singer at the Hamburg Schillertheater (1932-1933), at the Stadttheater of Lübeck (1933-1934) and since 1934 she was active at the Staatsoper of Hamburg. She continued her studies until 1936, when she became a soloist in the ensemble of the Hamburg Staatsoper, to which she belonged until 1939. In the years 1939-1940 she was engaged as a stage singer at the Stadttheater of Wilhelmshaven, and from 1940 to 1944 at the Staatstheater of Oldenburg. Here she sang roles like Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by R. Strauss, Rosina in the Barber of Sevilla, Mimi in La Bohème, Leonore in Troubadour, Konstanze in Entführung aus dem Serail and Sophie in Rosenkavalier. At the Bayreuth Festival of 1937 she was Soloblume in Parsifal.

After World War II, Margot Guilleaume was engaged as soloist by the Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunk Hamburg (North-West German Broadcast Hamburg) and moved now primarily to concert singing. On the stage she made guest appearances only occasionally, mainly in Mozart and Verdi roles. In 1945 she could be heard at that Hamburg Staatsoper as Olympia in Hoffmanns Erzählungen. In the concert hall she appeared particularly as outstanding interpreter of works from the Baroque epoch and from oratorio parts. Thus she appeared several times at the Händel Festival in Göttingen.

Since 1950 Margot Guilleaume hold training posts, from 1962 to 1977 Professor at the Hamburg Musikhochschule.

Recordings: Telefunken, Nixa (Schauspieldirektor by Mozart), Acanta-Bellaphon (Marzelline in complete recording of Fidelio), Melodram (Anna in Hans Heiling by Marschner), DGG (Orfeo by Monteverdi, Mozart Quartets, German Arias by George Frideric Handel, numerous recordings of early music on Archiv-DGG), Vox (Cantatas of Dietrich Buxtehude), Lyricord, Concerteum.

Source: Operissimo Website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (April 2004)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2004); Manfred Krugmann (Dates, May 2011; Photos 02-03, July 2011)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Under her name

Soprano

BWV 508; BWV 509, BWV 516, BWV 514, BWV 512, BWV 513, BWV 517, Recitative & Aria from BWV 82 [w/ harpsichordist Fritz Neumeyer]

Under her name

Soprano

BWV 476, BWV 493, BWV 487, BWV 450, BWV 475, BWV 445, BWV 484, BWV 478 [w/ Helmut Tramnitz, Organ]

Hans Grischkat

Soprano

BWV 51, BWV 232

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt

Soprano

BWV 232

Max Thurn

Soprano

Radio: BWV 9, BWV 18, BWV 29, BWV 43, BWV 57, BWV 74, BWV 92, BWV 101, BWV 187

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