Albert Niemann (tenor)

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Early career

Born in Erxleben, near Magdeburg, Niemann lost his father (an innkeeper) at an early age and was brought up by his mother, a woman 'of almost unwomanly hardness' who lived to be 90. He was apprenticed to an engine-maker, but ran away to Dresden to make his own life. [See Max Hochstettler, 2007, at external link, [http://www.luminous-lint.com/__sw.php?image/04755005504194542091367139/] ] He grew up with a Germanic dedication to hunting but also student-like, reading extensively in science, history and philosophy. He was not particularly sociable or tactful, was blunt in speech and often boorish in behaviour. [Newman 1941 59-60.] Niemann made a debut in Dessau in 1849, singing in minor roles and in chorus. He received training from Fritz Schneider (director of the ducal Hofkappel), from Albert Nusch and from Gilbert Duprez in Paris. Until 1866 he had various engagements in Stuttgart, Königsberg, Stettin and from 1854 in Hanover. [Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.] At Hanover he was singing Tannhäuser (from 1854), Lohengrin (from 1855) and Rienzi (from 1859). [Newman 1941, 60.] He had a large physique and a large voice to match. In 1859 he married the soprano Marie Seebach: however it is said that this marriage ended in divorce after he threw her out of a first-floor window. [Hochstettler 2007.]

Wagner's 'model company'

Niemann visited Wagner in the Asyl, at the composer's invitation, in summer 1858. Wagner had him in mind to create the role of Siegfried. From 1859, Wagner had involved Niemann (then at Hanover) in his plan to form a model German company to perform some operas, including "Tristan und Isolde", in Paris in 1860. The plan was for Niemann to sing "Tannhäuser" and Josef Tichatschek to sing "Lohengrin", alternating to rest their voices and able to replace each other if needed, and both to share a production of "Tristan und Isolde" as well. However the projected Isolde, Frau Bürde-Ney, could not be released from a Leipzig contract, and the project foundered. [Newman 1941, 56-61.]

The Paris "Tannhäuser"

However Paris issued an imperial command for Tannhäuser, and Niemann obtained a nine-month contract to join these rehearsals in September 1860. Hans von Bülow had little time for Niemann, either for his forced timbre or for his loutishness towards Wagner. [Newman 1941, 60-64.] Over the months of the rehearsals, Niemann refused to respond to Wagner's artistic direction and, desirous but doubtful of success, would not modify his brilliant ringing tones to the mood of resignation and ghostlike tonelessness required for the final act, despite Wagner's almost superhuman patience and encouragements towards him. [Newman 1941, 85-95.] He had learned that a Parisian faction intended to disrupt the production, and disloyally went through with it presenting himself as the unlucky artist involved in a work unworthy of his powers. The performances were utterly disrupted, and Niemann remained disingenuously aloof from Wagner's artistic claims throughout. [Newman 1941, 108-123.] Baudelaire wrote that Niemann had 'sung out of tune with deplorable assiduity', and condemned 'his weaknesses, his swoons, his tantrums of a spoiled child.' [Newman 1941, 124 n. 34, citing Beaudelaire, "Richard Wagner et Tannhäuser à Paris".] The Meyerbeer press, however, took Niemann's side, and he returned to Hanover to sing Raoul in "Les Huguenots".

Continuing career

In 1864, Niemann sang as guest in two performances of "Tannhauser" at Munich, and in one of "Lohengrin" by the arrangement of Ludwig II, shortly before the death of King Max II. Ludwig invited him to repeat these roles in Munich in 1866, but war intervened: in the following year he was again invited, but declined, because the usual cuts were not to be made. [Newman 1946, 75.] In 1866 he became a member of the Berlin Opera, and remained so until 1888. [Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.] In April 1870 he sang Walther in the Berlin "Meistersinger" premiere. [Newman 1946, 249.] As Tichatschek had grown old, and after Ludwig Schnorr's death in 1865, Niemann had become one of the most experienced and advanced Wagnerian tenors. In 1871 he married the actress Hedwig Raabe.

Bayreuth 1875-1876

In May 1872 he was in the quartet of soloists (with Johanna Jachmann-Wagner, Marie Lehmann and Franz Betz) in the inaugural performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the foundation-stone laying of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, and the gigantic Niemann made a truly heroic impression when striking the foundation-stone with a hammer. [Newman 1946, 358-360.] By 1874, Wagner had mentally settled on Niemann for the role of Siegmund in the complete "Ring cycle" as it was to be performed at Bayreuth. Wagner had involved Niemann in his discussions about the casting of the Ring, but Niemann (who had agreed to participate without remuneration), in dudgeon because Wagner wanted a younger man for the role of Siegfried, arrived at Wahnfried in 1875 for rehearsals and within three days had stormed out and injected poison into the atmosphere of exhilaration at Bayreuth. [Newman 1946, 447-451.]

However, his departure gave Wagner the opportunity to coach Georg Unger as Siegfried. Niemann returned to continue work in October, and in the following March he performed "Tristan" under Wagner's supervision in Berlin. Rehearsals were resumed in May (with a new Sieglinde), and the opening of Bayreuth was brought to completion in August 1876. Niemann sang Siegmund with Josephine Scheffzky as Sieglinde and Amalie Materna as Brunnhilde. [Newman 1946, 445-484 passim.] Lilli Lehmann wrote of him, 'never since have I heard or seen a Siegmund to compare with him... His intellectual power, his physical impressiveness, his incomparable expression were superb beyond words.' (Of his "Tristan" she remarked, 'it was certainly the most sublime thing that has ever been achieved in the sphere of music drama.') Saint-Saens, however, considered that since the Paris 1861 "Tannhäuser", time had eaten away Niemann's high notes, and he could no longer sing "piano" or "legato". [Newman 1946, 489-90.]

Later premieres

Niemann remained with the Berlin opera until 1888, but in the later years of his career he participated in several important tours. In 1882 he appeared as Siegmund in the first London "Die Walküre", at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1883 he was one of the twelve pall-bearers at Wagner's funeral at Wahnfried in 1883. In 1886-1888 he appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House, as the first American "Tristan" (1 December 1886, Anton Seidl conductor, Lilli Lehmann Isolde [Kobbé 1935, 227.] ), as Siegfried in the first American "Götterdämmerung" (25 January 1888, with Lilli Lehmann as Brunnhilde [Kobbé 1935, 207.] ), and in Spontini's opera "Fernando Cortez". [Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.] In New York he also sang Siegmund, John of Leyden in "Le prophète", Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Florestan (in "Fidelio") and Eleazar in "La juive". [Aldrich 1917.] Angelo Neumann's touring company, in which Niemann took part under Seidl's conductorship, toured with the "Ring" through many towns of Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and Austria. [Newman 1946, 683.]

Albert Niemann died in Berlin, two days short of his 86th birthday.

His son Albert Niemann (1880-1921) was the paediatrician who described Niemann-Pick disease.

Notes

Image

*Albert Niemann as Lohengrin, taken in 1881 [http://www.luminous-lint.com/__sw.php?image/04755005504194542091367139/]

Sources

*Richard Aldrich (1917), 'Albert Niemann, A Great Wagnerian Tenor'. "New York Times", 11 February 1917. [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=990DE1D8173AE433A25752C1A9649C946696D6CF&oref=slogin]
*Wilhelm Altmann (ed) (1924), "Richard Wagner und Albert Niemann. Ein Gedenkbuch". Georg Stilke Verlag, Berlin.
*Gustav Kobbé (1935 edition), "The Complete Opera Book". Putnam, London.
*Ernest Newman (1933-1946), "The Life of Richard Wagner" (4 Vols). Alfred Knopf, New York.
*H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack (1974 edn.), "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera". Oxford University Press, London.
*Richard Sternfeld (1904), "Albert Niemann". Das Theater Band IV. Schuster and Loeffler, Berlin and Leipzig.