Helge Rosvaenge

Rosvaenge, born Helge Rosenvinge Hansen, graduated in chemistry from the Technical University in Copenhagen. His voice was discovered by chance when he sang for friends in Schwerin; one of them was the Hungarian soprano Ilona Holndonner, who told him to study voice, and instantly gave with him in Schwerin what was to become his debut concert. Holndonner was soon to become his wife. He took voice lessons in Copenhagen and Berlin, and after a few concerts in Denmark, he made his stage debut in 1921 in Neustrelitz as Don José.

He sang in Altenburg (1922–24), Basel (1924–26) and Köln (1926–29) before he became a member of the Berlin Staatsoper in 1929 (until 1945) and the Vienna Staatsoper in 1932 (until 1957). Since he always sang in German-speaking countries, he was often written Roswaenge.

Guest appearances throughout Europe: Milano, London (Covent Garden), Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, Munich, Dresden, Hamburg, Salzburg Festival (frequently), Cairo (1933 as Radames, a big success), Barcelona, Bucarest, Budapest, Bayreuth (Parsifal, 1934 and 1936). He was famous not only for his top, but not least for his stamina: he sang about 200 performances per year and was the first major singer who travelled by airplane so as get around quicker. When he sang Canio, he usually insisted on singing also the prologue since the role of Canio alone didn't keep him busy enough for a whole evening.

He was a member of the Nazi party since 1933, and good friends with Hermann Göring. He sang concerts for Nazi organizations, and he wanted to help create the model Nazi opera: he chose the subject, he chose the librettist, he chose the composer, he looked after the Vienna Staatsoper world premiere, he even wrote the invitations for the VIP guests by hand, and of course he sang the lead character: the opera in question was Königsballade by Rudolf Wille, premiered in 1939. It was a failure, and got only three performances.

In 1945, the Soviets deported Rosvaenge to a camp near Moscow; after a few months, he could leave the country. He went to Spain, at that point the only Fascist country in Europe, and returned to his old profession as a chemist, quite successfully: from the patents he received in those years, he earned money for the rest of his life.

In 1948, he went back to Central Europe, and to stage: after a short stay in Switzerland, he returned to Vienna, and took up his career at both the Vienna Staatsoper and the Volksoper (which latter was, at the time, also part of the Staatsoper, whose first stage was the Theater an der Wien, the Staatsoper building proper having been destroyed in the war).

A few years later, Rosvaenge also returned to Berlin, but quite surprisingly: to Communist East Berlin! He sang there regularly, and was quite popular – so popular that he rewrote his autobiography Lache, Bajazzo as Mach es besser, mein Sohn; the new version was printed in East Germany. Comparison of those two books is as ugly as studying the Nazi period and its aftermath can get. The first version, for all formal distancing from the Nazis, clearly exudes the resentments of Göring's friend. The second version, on the contrary, is full of vitriolic remarks against the Nazis, and of antifascist ostentation...

Rosvaenge's career was long. He gave guest appearances in Zürich, Basel, Bern, Lucerne, Köln, at the Salzburg, Bregenz, Bad Hersfeld and Tecklenburg festivals, even in New York (concerts at Carnegie Hall, 1963, and Madison Square Garden, 1964), but also at the tiny provincial theater of Sankt Pölten: Carmen, Land des Lächelns and Pagliacci in 1963 and 1964. (It was high time to retire, as ultra-rare recordings from those performances prove.) Still in 1970, he sang a secondary part at the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich, the city where he lived and taught voice.

Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens; reference 2; reference 3: Robert Schlesinger: Gott sei mit unserm Führer. Der Opernbetrieb im deutschen Faschismus, Wien 1997, pp. 102 & 118; reference 4: Helge Rosvaenge: Lache, Bajazzo. Ernstes und Heiteres aus meinem Leben, München-Wien 1953; reference 5: Helge Rosvaenge: Mach es besser, mein Sohn. Ein Tenor erzählt aus seinem Leben, Leipzig 1963