Werner Alberti
Werner Alberti was born in Gnesen/Gniezno, then Germany now Poland, in 1860.
After first working in a bank, he studied voice in Berlin and made his
concert debut there in 1887, followed by a concert tour of Germany. In
1888 he joined the German Theater in Prague, and while there, also
appeared at the Vienna Opera (1889) and later at the Imperial Operas in
St. Petersburg and Moscow. He made successful guest appearances in Genova
(1895) and was engaged at the National Opera in Budapest (1899–1902).
Later, he lived in Berlin and sang often at the Kroll Opera and the
Theater des Westens; at the latter, in 1899, he sang the title role in the
first German performance of Andrea Chénier. In later years he taught
singing in Berlin. Alberti died in Berlin in 1934.
His real name was Albert Krzywynos (often given as Werner Krzywonos, which seems to be wrong, though);
Krzywynos is of course Polish, and Gnesen was a bilingual town, but from his German diction, there's no doubt that Alberti's
native language was German.
Picture source: Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main
Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the Postillon recording and label scan.
I would like to thank Harold Byrne for the biographical information and the recording (Juive).
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