|
Phone: 212-860-5541 * Fax: 917-677-8247
|
|
Price: $125.00 |
|
MINT CONDITION |
FRED DESTAL - BASS-BARITONE |
|
Autographed postcard photograph of the Latvian born, Jewish refugee heldenbaritone, 1940.
Destal born in Latvia, 1897 first appeared in a German opera house in the chorus in the mid 1920’s. He was convinced he had a voice and spent a year of study, before appearing in Saxony (1928-29) and Brno (1930-31). He was hired by the Deutschen Opernhaus in Berlin, 1931 and stayed until it became intolerable for a Jewish artist to work in 1933, where he went to Zurich and stayed until 1936, where his fame grew and he was given a contract for the Vienna Staatsoper, where he stayed until the Anschluss in 1938. Destal first emigrated to the United States, where he was on the roster of the San Francisco opera during the 1939 season, singing Wotan and Don Pizarro. However, he had spent several seasons in South American starting in 1936 and he found his artistic home at the Teatro Colon, becoming what Friedrich Schorr was to the Metropolitan Opera. His only other foray into opera singing in the United States was interestingly at the New York City Opera. (Fellow refugee and Zurich Opera House company member, Marko Rothmüller also appeared there as well.)
Destal today is remembered through a number of live recordings, both on Koch, in the Vienna Staatsoper live series (Amfortas, Hagen), as well as several important recordings from the Teatro Colon, including a live 1936 “Fliegende Holländer” as the Dutchman, a live 1936 “Parsifal” as Titurel, a live 1936 “Lohengrin” as Telramund and a live 1947 “Ring Cycle” as Alberich.
Destal was also a fine singer in the Italian repertory, with Scarpia, Alfio, Falstaff and Simon Boccanegra under his belt as well! |
