Ronald Pries
Pries was born in Hamburg and studied both acting and voice. He started as an actor, quite
prominently, at the Hamburg Thalia Theater under Boy Gobert, where he would play Brecht or Harald Mueller in the early 1970s.
In 1975, he switched to singing opera. He appeared in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Klagenfurt or Geneva, as a light
heldentenor and a comprimario.
Having retired in 1997, he became head of the vocal department at the Klagenfurt conservatory, and was also a stage director.
Reference
| Ronald Pries sings | Lohengelb oder Die Jungfrau von Dragant: Kommt näher her, with Josefine Engelskamp
|
In RA format
Lohengelb oder Die Jungfrau von Dragant is Franz von Suppé's parody of Lohengrin – a true rarity.
The title comes with two plays on words: -grin is how certain German dialects (above all the Saxon that Richard Wagner
spoke) pronounce grün (green), and though the name Lohengrin is totally unrelated to green or any other color,
Suppé makes it Lohengelb (gelb = yellow). Die Jungfrau von Dragant is the maiden of, no, not Brabant –
Dragant or Tragant is German for pastillage (a hard-drying modeling paste primarily consisting of sugar, and used to decorate
cakes). It's a spoof (in Austrian dialect, by the way) that is twice hilarious because Wagner and the Wagnerians were (and are)
so completely devoid of any trace of humor...
|
