Bausewein, Kaspar

SINGER (GERMANY)
BORN 15 Nov 1838, Aub, Bayern - DIED 18 Nov 1903, München, Bayern
GRAVE LOCATION München, Bayern: Alte Südfriedhof, Thalkirchnerstrasse 17 (31-02-34)

Kaspar Bausewein was the son of a taylor and grew up in poor circumstances. He was meant to be a school teacher, but after Franz Lachner discoverred his voice he took singing lessons with Härtinger. In 1858 he debuted as Sarastro in "Der Zäuberflöte" at the Court Opera in Munich.

He sang in four premieres of Wagner operas. In 1868 he was Veit Pogner in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". In 1869 he was the giant Fafner in "Das Rheingold". He had the part of Hunding in "Die Walküre" in 1870 and after Wagner's death he was Harald in the posthumous premiere of "Die Feen" in 1888.

In 1900 he gave his farewell performance in Munich as Lord Cockburn in Auber's "Fra Diavolo". He died in Munich in 1903.

Related persons
• was discovered by Lachner, Franz von
• performed work of Wagner, Richard

Events
21/6/1868Premiere of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nünberg". It was staged in Munich in the presence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Hans von Bülow was the conductor. Ludwig insisted that Wagner would sit next to him in the royal box. After the first act the public was very enthousiastic and demanded to see the composer. But Wagner didn't show himself. Only after the last act he rose to accept the ovation of the public. This caused a scandal because it was considered inappropriate that a composer received the honours of the public standing next to the king. [Bülow, Hans von][Diez-Hartmann, Sophie][Mallinger, Mathilda][Strauss, Franz Joseph][Wagner, Richard]
22/9/1869Premiere of Richard Wagner's "Das Rheingold" in Munich. Franz Wüllner was the conductor. August Kindermann was Wotan, Heinrich Vogl was Loge, Sophie Stehle was Fricka, Henriette Müller-Marion was Freya,. Other parts were sung by Franz Nachbaur, Emma Seehofer, Max Schlosser, Kasper Bausewein, Anna Kaufmann, Therese Vogel, Karl Samuel Heinrich and Wilhelmine Ritter. [Vogl, Heinrich][Vogl, Therese][Wagner, Richard]
26/6/1870Premiere of Wagner's "Die Walküre" at the Hoftheater in Munich. Wagner wanted to stage it in 1871, but Ludwig II of Bavaria was the legal owner of the piece and didn't want to wait. Wüllner was the conductor and Joachim, Brahms, Saint-Saëns and Liszt were in the audience. Wagner wasn't there and Ludwig also stayed away. He had decided to wait for the second performance so that he would be able to see "Das Rheingold", that would be staged again during the summer, and "Die Walküre" in the right order. [Brahms, Johannes][Joachim, Joseph][Liszt, Franz][Possart-Deinet, Anna von][Saint-Saëns, Camille][Vogl, Heinrich][Vogl, Therese][Wagner, Richard]
22/1/1899Premiere of Siegfried Wagner's "Der Bärenhäuter" in Munich. It was his first and also his most succesful opera. [Wagner, Siegfried]

Images

The grave of Kasper Bausewein at the Alte Südfriedhof, München.
Picture by Androom (22 Aug 2008)

 

Sources
• Blunt, Wilfrid, The Dream King, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1973
• Marek, George R., Cosima Wagner, Ein Leben für ein Genie, Knaur, München, 1993
Kaspar Bausewein – Wikipedia
Das Rheingold – Wikipedia


Bayes, Thomas

Published: 03 Jan 2016
Last update: 08 Oct 2023