Leo Slezak

Leo Slezak (August 18, 1873 – June 1, 1946) was a world-famous tenor, associated with German opera.

Born in Šumperk (Mährisch-Schönberg), he worked as a gardener, an engineer's fitter and served in the army before taking singing lessons with the first-class baritone Adolf Robinson. He made his debut in 1896 in Brno (Brünn) and proceeded to sing leading roles in Bohemia and Germany, appearing at Breslau and, in 1898-99, at Berlin. From 1901 onwards he was a permanent member of the Vienna State Opera's ensemble, becoming a popular star.

International career

Slezak's international career commenced in London at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he sang Siegfried and Lohengrin in 1900. (He would return to Covent Garden in 1909 after undertaking further vocal studies in Paris with Jean de Reszke.)

Slezak secured a three-year contract with the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1909. Met audiences acclaimed him in performances of works by Wagner and Verdi. Along with Giovanni Zenatello, he became the most famous Otello of his generation, performing the role at the Met with Arturo Toscanini conducting.

Many anecdotes reveal Slezak's sense of humour. The best-known example: During a performance of Wagner's "Lohengrin" a stage hand sent the swan out too early, before the tenor could hop aboard. Seeing his feathered transportation disappear behind the scenes, Slezak ad-libbed to the audience: "Wann fährt der nächste Schwan?" ("When does the next swan leave?")

He had a repertory of 66 roles, including notably Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Manrico, Radames, Verdi's Otello, Walter, Tannhäuser and Hermann. Of these, he sang 44 in Vienna alone, where he chalked up 936 appearances in 1901-12 and 1917-27. A tall man, he possessed a large and attractive lyric-dramatic voice with a distinctive tonal quality. He was a master of mezza voce singing and could deliver haunting head notes. Unfortunately, over time, his top register developed a strained quality when used at full volume.

Leo Slezak died in Rottach-Egern in 1946, shortly after the loss of his beloved wife.

Recordings

Slezak made a large number of disc and cylinder recordings between the early 1900s and the 1930s. They include arias and songs by a wide variety of composers, ranging from Mozart to Wagner. Many of his recordings have been released on CD compilations and are worth hearing.

Books

Slezak's autobiography, published in 1938 in English as "Song of Motley: Being the Reminiscences of a Hungry Tenor", contains pen-portraits of many of the musicians and artists with whom he worked, including Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini and Cosima Wagner. It also describes his tours of America, Russia and the Balkans and recalls his doomed audition for Frau Wagner at Bayreuth when he chose to sing music from Pagliacci.

Later in life, he published several very humorous, semi-autobiographical books, notably:
* "Meine sämtlichen Werke" ("All of my works"), his first (!) book
* "Der Wortbruch" ("The broken promise")
* "Der Rückfall" ("The relapse")

Films

In 1932, Slezak began appearing in German cinema. As an actor/comedian, he played humorous characters, but mostly he sang. His movies included "La Paloma" (1934) and "Gasparone" (1937). Slezak's final film role was as a portly sultan in the 1943 UFA prestige production "Münchhausen". His son, Walter Slezak, who started off in musical theater, became a successful character actor in Hollywood during the 1940s. His granddaughter (Walter's daughter) is the actress Erika Slezak, noted for her role on the soap opera One Life to Live.

External links

*imdb name|id=0805787|name=Leo Slezak
* [http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=leo+slezak&queryType=%40attr+1%3D1016 Leo Slezak cylinder recordings] , from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library.
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=710 Photographs of Leo Slezak]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6926427 Photo]

References

*Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), "The Oxford Dictionary of Opera", 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5