Richard Bruno Heydrich was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 opera singer (tenor), and composer.

Early career

Heydrich, son of a piano builder, was a contrabassist in the court orchestras of Meiningen and Dresden. In Weimar, he began his career as a singer. He was also a member of the Men's Association Schlaraffia

Schlaraffia

Schlaraffia is a worldwide German-speaking society founded in Prague in 1859 with a pledge of friendship, art and humor.The Schlaraffen, members of a men's organization , meet in midwinter once per week in their Schlaraffen castle for...

.

In 1895, Heydrich sang the title role in the premiere of Hans Pfitzner

Hans Pfitzner

Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...

's first opera Der Arme Heinrich. The young Pfitzner could find no one for the role. Heydrich made the selfless offer to perform free of charge once a stage had been found.

Composer

Heydrich composed choral works, songs, orchestral works and operas in the style of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, which were performed in Cologne and Leipzig. These works never entered the standard repertoire. Heydrich left behind about 83 compositions. In 1899 Heydrich founded in Halle an der Saale a music conservatory which bore his name.

Personal life

Heydrich's wife Elisabeth, née Krantz, came from a wealthy family and was the daughter of the head of the Royal Conservatory of Dresden, Eugen Krantz. She met Richard Bruno Heydrich when he was a student at the conservatory. In Halle an der Saale, Richard Bruno Heydrich, Elisabeth, and their children lived in a second floor apartment, Gütchenstraße 20. Richard Bruno Heydrich’s eldest son, SS General Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...

 (1904–1942), was named after the hero of Richard Bruno Heydrich’s first opera, Amen. Heinz Heydrich

Heinz Heydrich

Heinz Siegfried Heydrich was the son of Richard Bruno Heydrich and the younger brother of SS General Reinhard Heydrich...

, Reinhard's younger brother, committed suicide in 1944.

Richard Bruno Heydrich died at a spa near Dresden, where his death certificate was issued. His crypt is in the Stadtgottesacker, Halle an der Saale. Elisabeth Krantz Heydrich died of starvation in the Russian zone (East Germany) in 1946.

Works

Lieder

• Abschied O komm doch mein Mädchen: Lied für eine Singstimme mit Klavierbegleitung
• op. 1, No. 3 Drei Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Begleitung des Pianoforte (Das Mädchen spricht: Mond, hast du auch geseh’n)
• op. 74 Annemarie, Lied mit Klavierbegleitung für eine mittlere Stimme (Text von Julius Freund)
• op. 75 Reiterlied

Operas

• Amen (1895): Opern-Drama in 1 Akte u. e. musikalisch-pantomimischen Vorspiele
• Frieden (1907): Oper
• Zufall (1914) Oper in 1 Akt
• Das Leiermädchen (Volksoper)

External links

• Katalog Verbund GBV
• NZZ: Hans Pfitzner und die Zeitgeschichte
• http://www.mdr.de/geschichte/filme/legende-oder-wahrheit/132278-hintergrund-3557497.html
• Richard Bruno Heydrich on findagrave.com