Gudehus, Heinrich (1845-1909)

Gudehus, Heinrich

OPERA SINGER (GERMANY)

BORN 30 Mar 1845, Celle-Altenhagen, Niedersachsen - DIED 9 Oct 1909, Dresden, Sachsen
BIRTH NAME Gudehus, Heinrich Wilhelm
GRAVE LOCATION Dresden, Sachsen: Alter Annenfriedhof, Chemnitzer Strasse 32

The tenor Heinrich Gudehus was a pupil of Malwine Schnorr von Carolsfeld. In 1866 he married Celle Caroline Johanne Klippel, but she died in 1867 after she gave birth to a dead child. In 1868 he married her sister Dorothee Friedrike, but she died in 1869.

In 1871 he debuted at the Court Opera in Berlin. Afterwards Luise Ress (1843-1908) became his teacher and after several other stations he was was engaged at the Court Opera in Dresden in 1880. There he worked until 1890. In 1877 he had married Elisabeth Tovote in Meppen and with her he had two daughters and two sons.

He met Richard Wagner in Dresden in 1891 and Wagner was so impressed that he invited him to Bayreuth in 1882 where he sang the title part in the second performance of Wagner's final opera "Parsifal". He performed in Bayreuth several more times. In 1890 he was engaged at the Metropolitan Opera for one season. He ended his career in 1896. After he lost most of his money during a banking crisis in Leipzig and was forced to work as a teacher. He died in 1909 and his wife survived him until 1925.

Related persons
• was pupil of Schnorr von Carolsfeld-Garrigues, Eugenia Malvina
• worked for Wagner, Richard

Events

25/7/1886

First Performance of Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" at the Bayreuther Festspiele. It was staged by Cosima Wagner and conducted by Felix Mottl. Heinrich Gudehus was Tristan and RosaScuher was Isolde. Other performers were Gisela Staudigl, Karl Scheidemantel and Gustav Siehr. The stage set was designed by Max Brückner and the costumes were designed by Joseph Flüggen. [Flüggen, Joseph][Mottl, Felix][Scheidemantel, Karl][Wagner, Cosima][Wagner, Richard]