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The German contralto, Margarete Krämer-Bergau, studied from 1913 to 1915 at the Stern'schen Konservatorium Berlin with Selma Nicklass-Kempner and Nikolaus Rothmühl.
Margarete Krämer-Bergau began her career in 1916 with an engagement at the Stadttheater of Lübeck; then was engaged from 1918 at the Staatstheater Schwerin and moved in 1922 to the Opera House of Leipzig, to which she belonged in the following ten years. Then she lived in Berlin, however in the years 1937-1942 was again engaged at the Volksoper Berlin. During the 1920's she appeared regularly as a guest at the State Opera of Dresden and also appeared frequently as a guest at both big Opera Houses of Berlin, the Staatsoper and the Städtischen Oper.
Margarete Krämer-Bergau's repertoire covered a broad role spectrum, such as Orpheus by Gluck, Bradamante in Alcina by Georg Frideric Handel, Adriano in Wagner's Rienzi, Brangäne in Tristan, Magdalene in Meistersingern, Nancy in Flotow's Martha, Magdalena Evangelimann by Kienzl, Maria von Magdala in Die toten Augen Eugen d'Albert, Frau in Das Höllisch Gold by Bittner, Eustachia in Sonnenflammen by Siegfried Wagner, Octavian in Rosenkavalier, Azucena in Troubadour, Federica in Verdi's Luisa Miller, Carmen and Dalila in Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns. Apart from her affecting performance on the stage, stood an extensive activity as concert and oratorio singer.
After World War II, Margarete Krämer-Bergau was a teacher at the Konservatorium Klindworth-Scharwenka in Berlin, where she lived still at the beginning of the 1960's. She was married with the concert-master of the Leipzig Opera House orchestra Max Krämer.
Recordings: Bellaphon (Roßweiße in 3rd act of Walküre in a radio broadcast from 1938). |
