Gretl Schörg
Encyclopedia
Gretl Schörg was an Austria
n opera
tic soprano
and actress. She was particularly known for her performances in operetta
s. Her signature roles included Dodo in Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies
, Josepha Vogelhuber in The White Horse Inn
, Juliette in Der Graf von Luxemburg
, Julischka in Maske in Blau
, Laura in Der Bettelstudent
, and Pepi in Wiener Blut
. She made several operetta recordings for Telefunken
, Columbia Records
, and Polydor Records
. She was also active as a dramatic actress on the stage and in films. In April 2004 she was awarded the Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and Arts.
, Schörg first trained for the profession of typist. In 1937, a the age of 23, she won a beauty contest and became " Queen of Danube ". That same year she made her stage debut in Ostrava
at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre
in the world premiere of Ödön von Horváth
's play Der jüngste Tag. She spent the next two years performing at that theatre, and at theatres in Karlovy Vary
, Ostrava
, Marienbad, and Vienna
(Theater in der Josefstadt
). In 1939 she joined the opera house
in Aussig
(now Usti nad Labem) where she became popular as a performer in operetta
s. She made her professional opera debut at that house as Hannerl in Heinrich Berté
's arrangement of Franz Schubert
's Das Dreimäderlhaus
.
In 1940 Schörg went to the Komische Oper Berlin
where she was admired in the soubrette
and operetta repertoire during the Second World War
. With that company she sang in the world premieres of Ludwig Schmidseder
's Frauen im Metropol (1940, Fritzi) and Friedrich Schröder
's Friedrich Schröder (1941). She also spent those years performing in small film roles.
After the war, Schörg was active in operettas at the Admiralspalast
theatre and the Theater am Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. She also began appearing in more prominent roles in films, often in partnership with Johannes Heesters
and Romy Schneider
. In the first half of the 1950s she performed in many opera productions of the WDR Cologne
with Franz Marszalek
. She was then active with the Vienna Volksoper
, the Vienna Chamber Opera, and the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz
in Munich. She was also heard frequently in operetta broadcasts on German and Austrian radio stations during the 1950s.
In the 1960s, Schörg returned to her work as a dramatic actress at the Berliner Boulevardbühnen and Düsseldorfer Boulevardbühnen. For health reasons, she restricted her professional activities during the last decade of her career, which she ended in the early 1970s. She lived in retirement in Vienna, where she died in 2006. She was buried in the Hernalser Cemetery (Group E, No. 129). At the Vienna cemetery administration but is listed as Margaret Pfreimer.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n 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...
tic 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...
and actress. She was particularly known for her performances in 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:...
s. Her signature roles included Dodo in Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies
Hochzeitsnacht im Paradies
Hochzeitsnacht im Paradis is an operetta in eight scenes. Book by Heinz Hentschke, lyrics by Gunther Schwenn and music by Friedrich Schröder. It premiered in Berlin at the Metropol Theater September 24, 1942. It was filmed several times in German and several other languages....
, Josepha Vogelhuber in The White Horse Inn
The White Horse Inn
Im weißen Rößl is an operetta or musical comedy set in the picturesque Salzkammergut region of Upper Austria. It is about the head waiter of the White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang who is desperately in love with the owner of the inn, a resolute young woman who at first only has eyes for one of her...
, Juliette in Der Graf von Luxemburg
Der Graf von Luxemburg
Der Graf von Luxemburg is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár to German libretto by Alfred Willner, Robert Bodanzky, and Leo Stein. It premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, on 12 November 1909 and was an immediate success...
, Julischka in Maske in Blau
Maske in Blau
Maske in Blau is a grand operetta in two parts with music by Fred Raymond to a libretto by Heinz Hentschke and Günther Schwenn. The work had its premiere under Werner Schmidt-Boelke on 27 September 1937 at the Metropol Theater in Berlin...
, Laura in Der Bettelstudent
Der Bettelstudent
Der Bettelstudent is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker with a German libretto by Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée, based on Les noces de Fernande by Victorien Sardou and The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton...
, and Pepi in Wiener Blut
Wiener Blut (operetta)
Wiener Blut is an operetta named after the "Wiener Blut" waltz, supposedly with music by the composer Johann Strauss the Younger, who did not live to witness the première. Such was the popularity of the original "Wiener Blut" Op...
. She made several operetta recordings for Telefunken
Telefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
, Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, and Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
. She was also active as a dramatic actress on the stage and in films. In April 2004 she was awarded the Austrian Honorary Cross for Science and Arts.
Life and career
Born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Schörg first trained for the profession of typist. In 1937, a the age of 23, she won a beauty contest and became " Queen of Danube ". That same year she made her stage debut in Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre
Antonín Dvořák Theatre
Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava is one of the opera houses in the Czech Republic. It is a part of the National Moravian Silesian Theatre, founded in 1918.- History :...
in the world premiere of Ödön von Horváth
Ödön von Horváth
Edmund Josef von Horváth was a German-writing Austro-Hungarian-born playwright and novelist...
's play Der jüngste Tag. She spent the next two years performing at that theatre, and at theatres in Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
, Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
, Marienbad, and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(Theater in der Josefstadt
Theater in der Josefstadt
The Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna...
). In 1939 she joined the opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...
in Aussig
Ústí nad Labem
Ústí nad Labem is a city of the Czech Republic, in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The city is the 7th-most populous in the country.Ústí is situated in a mountainous district at the confluence of the Bílina and the Elbe Rivers, and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction...
(now Usti nad Labem) where she became popular as a performer in 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:...
s. She made her professional opera debut at that house as Hannerl in Heinrich Berté
Heinrich Berté
Heinrich Berté, born Heinrich Bettelheim - August 23, 1924, in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria) was an Austria-Hungarian composer of operas and operettas.-Life:...
's arrangement of Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Das Dreimäderlhaus
Das Dreimäderlhaus
Das Dreimäderlhaus , adapted into English language versions as Blossom Time and Lilac Time, is a Viennese pastiche 'operetta' with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Hungarian Heinrich Berté , and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
.
In 1940 Schörg went to the Komische Oper Berlin
Komische Oper Berlin
The Komische Oper Berlin is an opera company in Berlin, Germany, which specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals....
where she was admired in the soubrette
Soubrette
A soubrette is a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy".-Theater:...
and operetta repertoire during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. With that company she sang in the world premieres of Ludwig Schmidseder
Ludwig Schmidseder
Ludwig Schmidseder was a German composer and pianist of the "Light Muse". Several of his Schlager compositions are still popular tunes today....
's Frauen im Metropol (1940, Fritzi) and Friedrich Schröder
Friedrich Schröder
Friedrich Schröder was a German composer of what could be referred to as light music.-Career:Born in Näfels, Switzerland, Schröder studied music in Stuttgart, Münster, and Berlin. Already in those early days he wrote film scores. For a short period between 1934 and 1937 he also worked as a...
's Friedrich Schröder (1941). She also spent those years performing in small film roles.
After the war, Schörg was active in operettas at the Admiralspalast
Admiralspalast
The Admiralspalast is a theatre in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, located on Friedrichstraße No. 101. Opened in 1910, it is one of the few preserved variety venues of the pre-World War II era in the city....
theatre and the Theater am Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. She also began appearing in more prominent roles in films, often in partnership with Johannes Heesters
Johannes Heesters
Johan Marius Nicolaas "Johannes" Heesters is a Dutch actor, singer and entertainer with a -year career, almost exclusively in the German-speaking world. In Germany and Austria, Heesters is mainly known for his acting career...
and Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider
Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...
. In the first half of the 1950s she performed in many opera productions of the WDR Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
with Franz Marszalek
Franz Marszalek
Franz Marszalek was a German conductor and composer, who was a leading figure in operetta. He began his studies in Wrocław, and moved to Berlin in 1933. He conducted the Cologne Radio Orchestra from 1949 to 1965, with an emphasis on operetta music...
. She was then active with the Vienna Volksoper
Vienna Volksoper
The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....
, the Vienna Chamber Opera, and the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz
Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz
Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz is an opera house and opera company in Munich. Designed by the architect Michael Reiffenstuel, it opened on 5 November 1865 as the city's second opera house after the National Theatre....
in Munich. She was also heard frequently in operetta broadcasts on German and Austrian radio stations during the 1950s.
In the 1960s, Schörg returned to her work as a dramatic actress at the Berliner Boulevardbühnen and Düsseldorfer Boulevardbühnen. For health reasons, she restricted her professional activities during the last decade of her career, which she ended in the early 1970s. She lived in retirement in Vienna, where she died in 2006. She was buried in the Hernalser Cemetery (Group E, No. 129). At the Vienna cemetery administration but is listed as Margaret Pfreimer.
Filmography (selection )
- 1943: Kollege kommt gleich
- 1944: Herr Sanders lebt gefährlich
- 1948: Intimitäten
- 1949: Märchen vom Glück
- 1950: Verlobte Leute
- 1950: SchwarzwaldmädelSchwarzwaldmädelSchwarzwaldmädel is a 1917 operetta in three acts by German composer Leon Jessel. The libretto is by August Neidhart, and the operetta premiered on 25 August 1917 at the Alte Komische Oper Berlin in Berlin...
- 1952 Saison in SalzburgSeason in Salzburg (1952 film)Season in Salzburg is a 1952 Austrian musical film directed by Ernst Marischka and starring Johanna Matz, Adrian Hoven and Walter Müller. It is based on the operetta Season in Salzburg by Kurt Feltz. It depicts a number of misunderstandings during the musical season in Salzburg.-Cast:* Johanna...
- 1953: Die Fiakermilli
- 1955: Die Deutschmeister
- 1957: Bel Ami. Der Frauenheld von Paris
- 1962: Vor Jungfrauen wird gewarnt
- 1970: Unsere Pauker gehen in die Luft
- 1971: Die tollen Tanten schlagen zu
- 1972: Kinderarzt Dr. Fröhlich
Literature
- Klaus Rittweger: Gretl Schörg. Mein Theaterleben. Wagner, Gelnhausen 2004, ISBN 3-935232-22-5