Hans Erl Explained

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". He was deported in 1942 and died^[6] (probably the same year) in Auschwitz.^{[7] [8]}

Notes and References

1. [Hannes Heer]
2. [Jonathan C. Friedman]
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. Book: Friedman, Jonathan C.. The Lion and the Star: Gentile-Jewish relations in Three Hessian Communities, 1919-1945. 1998. University Press of Kentucky. 978-0-8131-2043-0. 84.
6. News: Information. January 1962. AJR. Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. 12. 21 March 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110720063018/http://www.ajr.org.uk/journalpdf/1962_january.pdf. 20 July 2011. dead.
7. Web site: CV Erl Hans . . German . 18 October 2010 .
8. Web site: E performers opera . operone.de . German . 18 October 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101104142349/http://operone.de/repro/reproe.html . 4 November 2010.