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Born: July 21, 1906 - Glantz, Germany
Died: December 8, 1987 - Munich, Germany |
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The German soprano, Annelies Kupper, studied music science and education at the University of Breslau and finished her examinations as a music teacher. She worked as such from 1929 to 1935 at the Lyzeum of the Ursulinen in Breslau.
After she had already worked as concert soprano, Annelies Kupper made her debut in 1935 at the Opera House of Breslau as a second boy in Zauberflöte. Other appearances quickly followed. After the National Theatre of Schwerin (1937-1938) and the National Theatre of Weimar (1938-1940), she came in 1940 to the State Opera of Hamburg. There she remained until 1945, and since then was a celebrated member of the Bavarian State Opera Munich.
Annelies Kupper made regularly guest appearances at the State Opera of Vienna (starting in 1938 with the role of Eva in Meistersingern) and at the State Opera Berlin. Appearances led her to Paris, Stockholm, Brussels, The Hague and Amsterdam. At the Festival of Bayreuth she sang in 1944 Eva in Meistersingern, and in 1960 Elsa in Lohengrin. At the Salzburg Festival in August 1952 she created the title role in the official premiere of the R. Strauss’ opera Die Liebe der Danaë, as the composer himself had promised her still before his death in 1949. In 1950 she sang with the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten, and also the solo soprano in Messiah by George Frideric Handel and in Buch mit sieben Siegeln by Franz Schmidt. In 1952-1953 she made a guest appearance at the Covent Garden Opera in London as Chrysothemis in Elektra by R. Strauss and in the premiere there of Buch mit sieben Siegeln. As late as 1961, she sang in to Munich thec role of Desdemona in Verdi’s Othello. Until 1966 she still gave occasional appearances.
Since 1956 Annelies Kupper worked as lecturer, later as Professor at the Munich College of Music. Since 1937 she was married with the music critic and pianist Joachim Hermann, and he accompanied her at the piano in recitals of Lieder. The beauty of her voice, and the way she expressed virtual feelings were admired again and again by the critics and the public alike.
Her recordings appeared on the labels DGG (Elsa in Lohengrin, Senta in Fliegenden Holländer); on Bellaphon a complete recording of Elektra, produced from the Hamburg Opera production in 1944 with her in the role of Chrysothemis; on Melodram Daphne by R. Strauss (in the title role, Munich 1950); on Fonit Cetra Missa Solemnis by L.v. Beethoven; on Bruno Walter Society Mitschnitt in the Salzburg premiere of Liebe der Danaë (1952); on Melodram Meistersinger and Ägyptischen Helena by R. Strauss; on Christophorus-Verlag Das Marienleben by Paul Hindemith (revised version of the song cycle of 1949). |
