Karl Terkal
Encyclopedia
Karl Terkal was an Austrian operatic tenor
, particularly associated with lyric roles of the German repertory, both opera
and operetta
.
Terkal was working as a furniture carpenter
in Vienna, while taking voice lessons with Valerie Wilhelm. He later entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he was a pupil of Hermann Gallos. He made his stage debut in Graz
, as Don Ottavio
, in 1950, and remained there until 1952. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera
in 1951, again as Don Ottavio, under Clemens Krauss
, and began a long association with that theatre that would last some thirty years. He also sang frequently at the Vienna Volksoper
, where he became a great favorite in operetta. He was also a guest at the Bregenz Festival and Salzburg Festival
.
He also made appearances in London
, Rome
, Milan
, Naples
, Palermo
, Lisbon
, etc. He excelled in lyric parts in opera by Mozart, Wagner, Strauss
, Verdi and Puccini, as well as operetta by Johann Strauss
, Franz Lehár
, etc.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, particularly associated with lyric roles of the German repertory, both 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:...
.
Terkal was working as a furniture carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
in Vienna, while taking voice lessons with Valerie Wilhelm. He later entered the Vienna Music Academy, where he was a pupil of Hermann Gallos. He made his stage debut in Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
, as Don Ottavio
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, in 1950, and remained there until 1952. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
in 1951, again as Don Ottavio, under Clemens Krauss
Clemens Krauss
Clemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss.-Biography:...
, and began a long association with that theatre that would last some thirty years. He also sang frequently at 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....
, where he became a great favorite in operetta. He was also a guest at the Bregenz Festival and Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
.
He also made appearances in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, etc. He excelled in lyric parts in opera by Mozart, Wagner, Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, Verdi and Puccini, as well as operetta by Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
, etc.
Selected recordings
- 1951 - La bohèmeLa bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
- Trude EipperleTrude EipperleTrude Eipperle was a German operatic soprano.She studied at the Musikhochschule in her native Stuttgart, and made her stage debut in Wiesbaden, in 1930. She sang in Nuremberg , Brunswick , Munich , Cologne , and Stuttgart from 1951 onwards...
, Karl Terkal, Wilma LippWilma LippWilma Lipp is an Austrian operatic soprano, particularly associated with Mozart roles, especially Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute....
, Alfred Poell - Bavarian Radio Chorus and Orchestra, Clemens KraussClemens KraussClemens Heinrich Krauss was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss.-Biography:...
- Cantus Classic (sung in German)
- 1953 - La traviataLa traviataLa traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
- Teresa Stich-RandallTeresa Stich-RandallTeresa Stich-Randall was a European-based American soprano opera singer.-Biography:Teresa Stich-Randall was born in New Hartford, Connecticut in 1927 and studied at The Hartt School in West Hartford....
, Karl Terkal, Robert Blasius - Cologne Radio Chorus and Orchestra, Mario RossiMario RossiMario Rossi was an Italian conductor, noted for his solid and meticulous readings of a repertory ranging from Italian classics to Russian moderns such as Prokoffiev, to the German operatic classicist Christoph Willibald Gluck.He studied composition in Rome with Respighi and conducting with Giacomo...
- Cantus Classic (sung in German)
- 1956 - Die Frau ohne SchattenDie Frau ohne SchattenDie Frau ohne Schatten is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917...
- Leonie RysanekLeonie RysanekLeopoldine "Leonie" Rysanek was an Austrian dramatic soprano.-Biography:Rysanek was born in Vienna and made her operatic debut in 1949 in Innsbruck. In 1951 the Bayreuth Festival reopened and the new leader Wieland Wagner asked her to sing Sieglinde...
, Christel GoltzChristel GoltzChristel Goltz was a German operatic soprano. One of the leading dramatic sopranos of her generation, she possessed a rich voice with a brilliant range and intensity...
, Emmy LooseEmmy LooseEmmy Loose was an Austrian operatic soprano of Czech birth, particularly associated with soubrette roles....
, Elisabeth HongenElisabeth HöngenElisabeth Höngen was a German operatic mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss roles, and with Verdi's Lady Macbeth....
, Hans HopfHans HopfHans Hopf was a German operatic tenor, one of the leading heldentenors of the immediate postwar period....
, Karl Terkal, Paul Sch%C3%B6ffler, Vienna Philharmonic, Karl Boehm - London
- 1959 - Die FledermausDie FledermausDie Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
- Gerda Scheyer, Wilma LippWilma LippWilma Lipp is an Austrian operatic soprano, particularly associated with Mozart roles, especially Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute....
, Christa LudwigChrista LudwigChrista Ludwig is a retired German mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, Lieder, oratorio and other major religious works like masses and passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature...
, Karl Terkal, Anton DermotaAnton DermotaKammersänger Anton Dermota was a Slovene tenor.He was born in a poor family Born in the Upper Carniolan village of Kropa, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire . He went to the Ljubljana Conservatory with the intention of studying composition and organ, but in 1934 he received a scholarship...
, Eberhard WachterEberhard Waechter (baritone)Eberhard Wächter was an Austrian baritone, particularly celebrated for his performances in the operas of Mozart, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss...
, Walter Berry - Philarmonia Chorus and Orchestra, Otto AckermannOtto AckermannOtto Ackermann was a Romanian conductor who made his career mainly in Switzerland.He studied at the Hochschule, Berlin, conducted the Royal Romanian Opera when aged only 15, and then held many important appointments as operatic conductor, beginning with Düsseldorf Opera, 1928-1932...
- EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....