Gitta Alpár
Encyclopedia
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
-born 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...
and operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
.
Gitta Alpár was born in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
as Klopfer Regina. At an early age she commenced the study of singing and pianoforte at the Academy of Budapest. Her first public appearance was at age eighteen at the Budapest State Opera House which led to a long contract and her singing all over the world. In 1931, Alpar married actor Gustav Fröhlich
Gustav Fröhlich
Gustav Fröhlich was a German actor. He landed secondary roles in a number of films and plays before landing his breakthrough role of Freder Fredersen in Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.-Biography:...
, with whom she had a child, Julika. Her first films were made in Germany. The marriage was dissolved in 1935 because Alpar was Jewish and the marriage was illegal in National Socialist Germany. Alpar appeared on "Hitler's hit list", along with Charlie Chaplin and others, in the pages of the anti-semitic book, Juden sehen Dich an by Johann von Leers
Johann von Leers
Dr. Johann von Leers, alias Omar Amin , was an Alter Kämpfer and an honorary Sturmbannführer in the Waffen SS in Nazi Germany, where he was also a professor known for his anti-Jewish polemics. He was one of the most important ideologues of the Third Reich, serving as a high-ranking propaganda...
.
Alpar left Germany in 1933, first for Austria (where the film version of Ball im Savoy was made) and Hungary, then England and eventually the United States, where she continued her singing and film career. She died in Los Angeles.
Roles created
- 1931: Comtesse Dubarry in the revised version of Gräfin DubarryGräfin DubarryGräfin Dubarry is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker to a German libretto by F. Zell and Richard Genée. The story concerns Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, King of France.-Performance history:...
by MillöckerKarl MillöckerCarl Joseph Millöcker , was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor.He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas... - 1932: Madeleine de Faublas in the operetta Ball im SavoyBall im SavoyBall im Savoy is an operetta in three acts and a prelude by Paul Abraham to a libretto by Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda....
by Paul Abraham
Recordings
- Lebendige Vergangenheit - Gitta Alpár: includes arias and excerpts by Félicien-César DavidFélicien-César DavidFélicien-César David was a French composer.-Biography:Félicien David was born in Cadenet , France, and began to study music at five under his father, whose early death however left him an impoverished orphan...
, DelibesLéo DelibesClément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
, Eva Dell'AcquaEva Dell'AcquaEva Dell'Acqua was a Belgian singer and composer of Italian ancestry.-Biography:Eva Dell'Acqua was born in 1856 in Brussels, Belgium, and was the daughter of the Italian painter Cesare Dell'Acqua...
, Ruggero LeoncavalloRuggero LeoncavalloRuggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
, MeyerbeerGiacomo MeyerbeerGiacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
, MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
, Rossini, and VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
(1996, Preiser Records 1083891)
Films
- 1932 - Gitta entdeckt ihr Herz
- 1932 - Die – oder keine
- 1934 - Ball im Savoy (film version of the operetta by Paul Abraham)
- 1935 - I Give My Heart (The Dubarry)
- 1935 - Le disque 413/Disk 413
- 1936 - Guilty Melody
- 1936 - Everything in Life
- 1937 - Mr. Stringfellow Says No
- 1938 - The Loves of Madame DubarryThe Loves of Madame DubarryThe Loves of Madame Dubarry a.k.a. I Give My Heart is a 1935 British historical film adapted from the stage operetta The DuBarry. Directed by Marcel Varnel, and produced by J. H. Hoffberg Company. It is based on the life of Madame Du Barry....
- 1941 - The Flame of New OrleansThe Flame of New OrleansThe Flame of New Orleans is a 1941 comedy film directed by René Clair and starring Bruce Cabot in his first comedy role and Marlene Dietrich. It was nominated an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Martin Obzina, Jack Otterson and Russell A...
External links
- http://www.univie.ac.at/biografiA/daten/text/bio/alpar.htm (German)
- http://www.cyranos.ch/smalpa-e.htm (English)
- Photographs of Gitta Alpár
- Bell Song Lakme - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JjXtOieObA