Reinhold Fritz

Reinhold Fritz (16 March 1884 – 30 October 1950) was a German operatic bass-baritone. He was engaged at the Stuttgart Court Opera for 25 years and was awarded the title Kammersänger. He performed a broad repertoire of both serious and comic roles, and participated in world premieres including the first version of Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, Siegfried Wagner's An allem ist Hütchen schuld! and Hindemith's Das Nusch-Nuschi. Fritz was dismissed in 1933 under the Nazi regime because his wife was Jewish.

Reinhold Fritz
Born(1884-03-16)16 March 1884
Ostfildern
Died30 October 1950(1950-10-30) (aged 66)
Stuttgart
OccupationOperatic bass-baritone
OrganizationStuttgart Court Opera
TitleKammersänger

Life and career

Born in Ostfildern,[1] Fritz learned the profession of a goldsmith and practised it for six years in Esslingen am Neckar. In 1904 he began studying voice in Stuttgart, and was engaged as an apprentice (Eleve) at the Stuttgart Court Opera in 1908. After only one year he was accepted as a member of the ensemble. He built a broad repertoire of both serious and comic roles, and quickly became one of the pillars of the ensemble. His voice range also included Heldenbaritone roles. In 1913, he was awarded the title of a royal Kammersänger. He received offers from other opera houses, but remained loyal to the Stuttgart opera. He also took part in numerous premieres and first performances, in works by Walter Braunfels, Paul Hindemith, Ture Rangström, Max von Schillings and Siegfried Wagner.[1] He only left Stuttgart for guest performances, which took him to the Bayerische Hofoper in Munich and the Großherzogliches Hoftheater in Karlsruhe, among others.[1]

Fritz married Hilda Landauer from Ravensburg in 1912. The couple had at least one son, Walter Fritz (born in 1915),[2] who later also pursued a career as an opera singer.[1] Since the singer refused to divorce his Jewish wife after the National Socialists seized power, he was "retired for health reasons", as it was officially stated, on 1 August 1933 at the age of 49.[3] However, unlike his Jewish colleagues Hermann Horner and Hermann Wilhelm Weil, who were also dismissed, he was given the right to a farewell performance. On 6 December 1933, he appeared as van Bett in Lortzing's Zar und Zimmermann, one of his signature roles, and was named an honorary member of the house that evening.[1][2] On the playbill, however, he was already noted as a guest. Verstummte Stimmen notes that individual guest performances at the Stuttgart opera until 1935 did not change the fact that his singing career was suddenly ended at its peak.

This was followed by exclusion from the Reichstheaterkammer, which was tantamount to a practical Berufsverbot (professional ban). Since the family could not survive with the meagre pension, Fritz had to work from then on as an assistant for a Stuttgart coal merchant and in a Bielefeld company. To make matters worse, the family's home was destroyed by aerial bombs. In the 1945/46 season Fritz was brought back to the Stuttgart opera, but only with a guest performance contract for ten evenings.

Fritz spent the last years of his life in Eningen unter Achalm. He died in Stuttgart at the age of 66.[1]

Roles

The list of roles is based on Großes Sängerlexikon [1] and Verstummte Stimmen:

Playbill for the first performance of S. Wagner's An allem ist Hütchen schuld in Stuttgart in 1917

World premieres in Stuttgart:

Beethoven:

Jacques Fromental Halévy:

Albert Lortzing:

Mozart:

Verdi:

  

Wagner:

Carl Maria von Weber:

Memorial

Fritz was one of the leading singers of the Stuttgart opera.[4] He was also successful in guest appearances and impressed with his versatility. His work in Stuttgart was shown in the exhibition Verstummte Stimmen (Silenced voices), about the expulsion of Jewish performers from 1933 to 1945, which was also shown at the Stuttgart State Opera in autumn 2008.[5] On 7 April 2016, another memorial session for the victims of the Nazi regime was held among the members of the Stuttgart State Theatres. In this context, a wall plaque "Verstummte Stimmen" for 23 artists, including Reinhold Fritz, was unveiled in the foyer of the Staatstheater.[6]

Further reading
  • Hannes Heer: Verstummte Stimmen. Die Vertreibung der "Juden" aus der Oper 1933 bis 1945. Der Kampf um das Württembergische Landestheater Stuttgart. Eine Ausstellung.[7] Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86331-303-6, p. 107
  • Anja Stefanidis on Kammersänger Reinhold Fritz, in Gelebte Utopie. Auf den Spuren der Freimaurer in Württemberg,[8] Book accompanying the exhibition of the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart / edited by Albrecht Ernst and Regina Grünert, 2017, pp. 142–143

References
  1. Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2012). "Fritz, Reinhold". Großes Sängerlexikon (in German) (4th ed.). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1578–1579. ISBN 978-3-59-844088-5.
  2. Musik in Baden-Württemberg: Jahrbuch 2003 (in German). 10. Springer-Verlag. 2016. pp. 282–283. ISBN 978-3-47-602892-1.
  3. Verfolgung jüdischer Künstler in Stuttgart' (in German) schoah.org
  4. Hannes Heer, Jürgen Kesting, Peter Schmidt: Verstummte Stimmen. Die Bayreuther Festspiele und die "Juden" 1876 bis 1945, Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-98-7, p. 107
  5. Verstummte Stimmen - Exhibition at the Stuttgart State Opera and Haus der Geschichte Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
  6. Gedenktafel für NS-Opfer im Staatstheater Stuttgart enthüllt Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, 7 April 2016
  7. Verstummte Stimmen : die Vertreibung der Juden aus der Oper 1933 bis 1945 ; eine Ausstellung on WorldCat
  8. Gelebte Utopie. Auf den Spuren der Freimaurer in Württemberg / Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung on WoldCat
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