Hans Erl

Hans Tobias Erl (Warsaw or Vienna 1882 – Deported to Auschwitz, 1942?) was a German operatic bass.^[1]

Professional career

He began his actual career in the theatre during the 1908-1909 season at the Raimund-Theater in Vienna, after already having sung in the world premiere performance of Oscar Straus' operetta Die lustigen Nibelungen at the Wiener Carl-Theater in 1904. Further engagements were at the Stadttheater Augsburg (1911–1913), the Stadttheater Elberfeld (1913–1914), and the Stadttheater Chemnitz (1914–1918, interrupted by military service during World War I in 1914-1915). In 1918 he began a fifteen-year engagement with the Frankfurt Opera as the first bass, where he became one of the ensemble's best known singers.^[2][3] He was dismissed from the Opera on 11 June 1933.^[4]

His repertoire included the major basso profondo roles (Padre Guardiano in Verdi's La forza del destino, Il Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte), and the major Wagner bass roles (the Landgrave in Tannhäuser, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Hunding in Die Walküre, Gurnemanz in Parsifal). He sang the role of the King in the world premiere performance of Franz Schreker's Der Schatzgräber (21 January 1920).

Holocaust

Being a Jew,^[5] he was fired from the Frankfurt Opera in 1933. The Jews were forced to gather in the Festhalle Frankfurt and Erl was forced to sing "In Diesen Heilgen Hallen".^[6] He was deported in 1942 and murdered^[6] (probably the same year) in Auschwitz.^[7][8]

References

1. Hannes Heer, Jürgen Kesting, Peter Schmidt Verstummte Stimmen: die Vertreibung der "Juden" aus der Oper 1933 2008 Hans Tobias Erl – geb. 1882 Warschau oder Wien – bis 1933 Opernhaus Frankfurt/M. – 1942 Deportation nach Majdanek – dort vermisst."
2. Jonathan C. Friedman The lion and the star: gentile-Jewish relations in three Hessian 1998 p84 "The city's illustrious Jewish artists and entertainers included Ernestine Epstein, who sang the lead at the opening performance of Richard Strauss's Don Juan; famous Wagnerian vocalists Magda Spiegel and Hermann Schramm; Hans Erl, ..."
3. Karl Erich Grözinger Jüdische Kultur in Frankfurt am Main von den Anfängen bis zur Franz Rosenzweig-Zentrum 1997 p376 "Opfer der Verfolgung an den „Städtischen Bühnen" sind: Richard Breitenfeld, Sänger, Hans Erl, Sänger, Dr. Herbert Graf, Spielleiter, Hermann Schramm, Sänger , Moses Slager, Violinist, Ary Schuyer, Violoncellist, Magda Spiegel, "
4. Frankfurter jüdische Erinnerungen: ein Lesebuch Sozialgeschichte, 1864-1951 ed. Elfi Pracht-Jörns, Elfi Pracht, Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden – Dezernat Kultur und Freizeit 1997 "Hans Erl (1882-1942), Opernsänger, 1918-1933 Erster Bassist an der Frankfurter Oper. Seine Glanzpartien waren der Baron Ochs im »Rosenkavalier« und Sarastro in der »Zauberflöte«. 1933 entlassen, am 11. 6 "
5. Friedman, Jonathan C. (1998). The Lion and the Star: Gentile-Jewish relations in Three Hessian Communities, 1919-1945. University Press of Kentucky. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-8131-2043-0.
6. "Information" (PDF). AJR. Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. January 1962. p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
7. "CV Erl Hans" (in German). Operissimo concertissimo. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
8. "E performers opera" (in German). operone.de. Archived from the original on 4 November 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2010.