Leo Slezak
Encyclopedia
Leo Slezak was a world-famous Moravian tenor
. He was associated in particular with German
opera
as well as the title role in Verdi's Otello
.
(Mährisch-Schönberg), Slezak worked as a gardener, an engineer's fitter and served in the army before taking singing lessons with the first-class baritone and pedagogue Adolf Robinson
. He made his debut in 1896 in Brno
(Brünn) and proceeded to sing leading roles in Bohemia
and Germany, appearing at Breslau and, in 1898-99, at Berlin
. From 1901 onwards he was a permanent member of the Vienna State Opera
's roster of artists, achieving star status.
, Covent Garden
, where he sang Siegfried
(a punishing role that he would soon drop from his repertoire) and Lohengrin
in 1900. (He would return to Covent Garden in 1909 after undertaking further vocal studies in Paris
the previous year with a great tenor of a previous era, Jean de Reszke
.)
Slezak secured a three-year contract with the New York
Metropolitan Opera
in 1909. Met audiences acclaimed him in performances of works by Wagner
and Verdi
. Along with Italy's Giovanni Zenatello
, he became the most famous Otello of his generation, famously performing the role at the Met with Arturo Toscanini
conducting.
He was a convivial person, and many anecdotes reveal his amiable sense of humour. The best-known example is as follows: during a performance of Wagner's Lohengrin
, a stage hand sent the swan out too early, before the tenor could hop aboard. Seeing his feathered transportation disappear into the wings, Slezak ad-libbed to the audience: "Wann fährt der nächste Schwan?" ("When does the next swan leave?").
Slezak had a versatile repertory which embraced 66 roles. They included notably Rossini's Guillaume Tell
, Manrico
, Radames
, Walter
, Tannhäuser
, Hermann
and, as we have seen, Otello and Lohengrin. He sang 44 roles in Vienna alone, where he chalked up 936 appearances in 1901-12 and 1917-27 and became an idol of audiences.
Leo Slezak died in Rottach-Egern
in 1946, shortly after the death of his wife, whose loss he felt deeply.
, Arturo Toscanini and Cosima Wagner
. It also describes his tours of America, Russia and the Balkans and recalls his doomed audition for Frau Wagner at Bayreuth, when he foolishly chose to sing music from the verismo
Italian opera Pagliacci
.
Later in life, he published several very humorous, semi-autobiographical books, notably:
, he played humorous characters, but mostly he sang. His movies included La Paloma
(1934) and Gasparone
(1937). Slezak's final film role was as a portly sultan in the 1943 UFA
prestige production Münchhausen
. His son, Walter Slezak
, who started off in musical theater, became a successful character actor in Hollywood during the 1940s. His grand-daughter (Walter's daughter) is the actress Erika Slezak
, noted for her role on the soap opera
One Life to Live
.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
. He was associated in particular with German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
as well as the title role in Verdi's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
.
Beginnings
Born in ŠumperkŠumperk
Šumperk is a town and district in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It is called "The Gate to Jeseníky mountains."- History :Šumperk was founded by German colonists in 1269. The German name Schönberg means "beautiful hill", and the name Šumperk is a Czech garbling of the original German...
(Mährisch-Schönberg), Slezak worked as a gardener, an engineer's fitter and served in the army before taking singing lessons with the first-class baritone and pedagogue Adolf Robinson
Adolf Robinson
Adolf Robinson was an Austrian baritone who had a major opera career during the second half of the 19th century. His extensive stage repertoire contained numerous Wagnerian roles such as Wotan in The Ring Cycle and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg...
. He made his debut in 1896 in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
(Brünn) and proceeded to sing leading roles in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
and Germany, appearing at Breslau and, in 1898-99, at Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. From 1901 onwards he was a permanent member of the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
's roster of artists, achieving star status.
International career
Slezak's international career commenced in London at the Royal Opera HouseRoyal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, where he sang Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
(a punishing role that he would soon drop from his repertoire) and Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
in 1900. (He would return to Covent Garden in 1909 after undertaking further vocal studies in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
the previous year with a great tenor of a previous era, Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw, , was a Polish tenor. Renowned internationally for the high quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing, he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century....
.)
Slezak secured a three-year contract with the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in 1909. Met audiences acclaimed him in performances of works by Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. Along with Italy's Giovanni Zenatello
Giovanni Zenatello
Giovanni Zenatello was an Italian opera singer. Born in Verona, he enjoyed an international career as a dramatic tenor of the first rank. Otello became his most famous operatic role but he sang a wide repertoire. In 1904, he created the part of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.-Career:Zenatello...
, he became the most famous Otello of his generation, famously performing the role at the Met with Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
conducting.
He was a convivial person, and many anecdotes reveal his amiable sense of humour. The best-known example is as follows: during a performance of Wagner's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, a stage hand sent the swan out too early, before the tenor could hop aboard. Seeing his feathered transportation disappear into the wings, Slezak ad-libbed to the audience: "Wann fährt der nächste Schwan?" ("When does the next swan leave?").
Slezak had a versatile repertory which embraced 66 roles. They included notably Rossini's Guillaume Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
, Manrico
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Radames
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Walter
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
, Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, Hermann
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
and, as we have seen, Otello and Lohengrin. He sang 44 roles in Vienna alone, where he chalked up 936 appearances in 1901-12 and 1917-27 and became an idol of audiences.
Vocal characteristics & death
A tall barrel-chested man, Slezak possessed a large and attractive lyric-dramatic voice which enabled him to undertake all but the very heaviest Wagnerian parts such as Siegfried or Tristan. He had a distinctive tonal quality, too, which became markedly darker after his studies with de Reszke in 1908. Slezak was a master of mezza-voce singing and he could also deliver haunting head notes. Unfortunately, with time and hard use, his top register developed a strained and unsteady quality when used at full volume, as can be heard on some of his recordings.Leo Slezak died in Rottach-Egern
Rottach-Egern
Rottach-Egern is a municipality and town located at Lake Tegernsee in the district of Miesbach in Upper Bavaria, Germany....
in 1946, shortly after the death of his wife, whose loss he felt deeply.
Recordings
Slezak made hundreds of disc and cylinder recordings, beginning in the early 1900s and ending in the 1930s. They were produced by several different record companies and include arias, duets and songs by a wide selection of composers, ranging from Mozart to Wagner. Most of his best records have been released on CD compilations. Some of his film work as an actor survives, too.Books
Slezak's autobiography, published in 1938 in English as Song of Motley: Being the Reminiscences of a Hungry Tenor, contains pen-portraits of many of the musicians and artists with whom he worked, including Gustav MahlerGustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, Arturo Toscanini and Cosima Wagner
Cosima Wagner
Cosima Francesca Gaetana Wagner, née de Flavigny, from 1844 known as Cosima Liszt; was the daughter of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt...
. It also describes his tours of America, Russia and the Balkans and recalls his doomed audition for Frau Wagner at Bayreuth, when he foolishly chose to sing music from the verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
Italian opera Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
.
Later in life, he published several very humorous, semi-autobiographical books, notably:
- "Meine sämtlichen Werke" ("All of my works"), his first book
- "Der Wortbruch" ("The broken promise")
- "Der Rückfall" ("The relapse")
Films
In 1932, Slezak began appearing in German cinema. As an actor/comedianComedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, he played humorous characters, but mostly he sang. His movies included La Paloma
La Paloma
This article is about the song. For the American city, see La Paloma, Texas."La Paloma" is a popular song, having been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was composed and written by Spanish composer Sebastián...
(1934) and Gasparone
Gasparone
Gasparone is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker to a German libretto by Friedrich Zell and Richard Genée. The libretto was later revised by Ernst Steffan and Paul Knepler...
(1937). Slezak's final film role was as a portly sultan in the 1943 UFA
UFA
Ufa is a city in Russia.UFA or Ufa may also refer to:*Ufa River, a river in Russia*Ufa, Ethiopia, a town in Ethiopia*Ultra flat architecture, a network architecture design for LTE 4G mobile telecommunication networks...
prestige production Münchhausen
Münchhausen (1943 film)
Münchhausen is a 1943 fantasy comedy film directed by Josef von Báky, a prominent director who remained in Germany under the Nazi regime. Despite being made in Nazi Germany, this film is noted for the way in which it was able to avoid the politics of the time...
. His son, Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak was a portly Austrian character actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films. Slezak often portrayed villains or thugs, most notably the German U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat , but occasionally he got to play lighter roles, as in The Wonderful World of the...
, who started off in musical theater, became a successful character actor in Hollywood during the 1940s. His grand-daughter (Walter's daughter) is the actress Erika Slezak
Erika Slezak
Erika Alma Hermina Slezak is an American actress, best known for her role as Victoria Lord on the American daytime soap opera One Life to Live...
, noted for her role on the soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
One Life to Live
One Life to Live
One Life to Live is an American soap opera which debuted on July 15, 1968 and has been broadcast on the ABC television network. Created by Agnes Nixon, the series was the first daytime drama to primarily feature racially and socioeconomically diverse characters and consistently emphasize social...
.
External links
- Leo Slezak cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectCylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectThe Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries with streaming and downloadable versions of over 10,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1893 and the mid 1920s.- History :The project began...
at the University of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraThe University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
Library. - Photographs of Leo Slezak
- Photo
- History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration