Theodor Wachtel by Sarony

THEDORE WACHTEL
1823-1893
German Tenor
He studied in Hamburg at Mme Julie Grandjean and Eckhardt in Vienna. He debuted in 1847 in Hamburg in a concert he gave in the salon of his patron. He began his career in 1849 at the Court Theatre actual stage of Schwerin (debut as Arturo in "Lucia di Lammermoor"), where he served until 1851. He came neither here nor in a subsequent engagement at the Court Opera of Dresden for special achievements. 1852-54 he worked at the Municipal Theatre of Würzburg, 1854-56 and 1856-57 at the Court Theatre of Darmstadt at the Court Theatre of Hanover. In 1857 he went to the Court Theatre of Kassel. Here he was exposed to all sorts of harassment, so that he left Kassel fled in violation of the existing contract. Because of this contract break he could sign a contract but occur only in guest appearances in the following years with no German theater more. This earned him now but in Dresden, Vienna and Berlin a brilliant success. He toured England, Ireland and Sweden. 1863-68 he had great success, where he made his debut as Edgardo in "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Berlin Court Opera. A particular high point of his career with appearances in London, where he was at the Covent Garden Opera and in 1879 at Her Majesty's Theatre to host in 1862, 1864-65 and 1870. At the Covent Garden Opera, he sang in 1865 in the British premiere of Meyerbeer's "Africaine" Vasco with Pauline Lucca in the role of Selika; He had great success in London and in the opera "Alessandro Stradella" by Flotow. In 1869, he appeared as a guest in Paris, where he attracted no particular attention. In the years 1871-72 and 1875-76, he participated in the North American tours, where he sang opera in German as in Italian. General admiration excited his voice especially because of their powerful sonority in the high and highest altitudes. The high C and even higher notes were produced by him effortlessly and with chest voice. Such was his starring role in the Chapelou "Le Postilion de Lonjumeau" of Adam with her unusual demands on the pitch of the tenor voice. About 1000 times he has been in Germany in this his signature role on the stage, so that they sometimes quite identified it with this game. In this case, it still came his special ability in good stead in the crack of a whip, which stemmed from the fact that he had worked in his youth as a coachman, and later as Managing Director in the trucking company of his father. Other major roles of the artist were the Manrico in "Il Trovatore" by Verdi, the title character in Flotow's "Stradella Alessandro", the Raoul in the 'Huguenots' by Meyerbeer and Arnoldo in Rossini's "William Tell". In 1876, he tried to contact the Lohengrin a Wagner role in his repertoire, but had no success. He was made an honorary member of the Court Theatre of Schwerin and Coburg. On 03/08/1893 the great tenor in Berlin gave his last Konzert.Er died in the same year. -. Among his sons had the highly talented but died young Theodor Wachtel Jr. (? * 1841, Dessau 12/12/1871) at theaters in Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Dessau a successful career, but this had to end prematurely. August quail was engaged since 1889 as a tenor at the court theater of Dessau; Ferdinand Wachtel was a buffo character and tenor known (David in "Die Meistersinger," Mime in the Ring of the Nibelung) and was engaged in the theaters of Poznan, Brno, Zurich (1892-94), Aachen, Neustrelitz and last until 1900 in Rostock; he then lived as a concert singer and teacher in Hamburg.