Eduard Devrient
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(Philipp) Eduard Devrient (11 August 1801 – 4 October 1877) was a German baritone, librettist, playwright, actor, theatre director and theatre reformer and historian.
Devrient came from a theatrical family. His uncle was Ludwig Devrient and his brother Karl was the first husband of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient.
He was born and studied in Berlin and performed in a number of German opera houses between 1819 and 1834, when he lost his singing voice and turned his attention to writing and acting. From 1844-6 he worked in Dresden as actor/director, and he directed the Hoftheater in Karlsruhe from 1852 until his retirement in 1870.
As a singer, he performed in works by Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven and Weber, among others, and sang in the première of Heinrich Marschner's Hans Heiling (in the title-role; Devrient also wrote its libretto). He also sang in the 1831 Berlin premiere of Der Templer und die Jüdin (as Bois-Guilbert).
He also took the part of Christ in the 1829 revival by his friend Felix Mendelssohn of J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
He wrote a number of plays and two other opera librettos, Die Kirmes and Der Zigeuner, both set by Wilhelm Taubert. In Karlsruhe, he initiated a number of theatre reforms and also wrote a number of works on the ideal of a national theatre.
Eduard Devrient died in Karlsruhe. His son Otto Devrient also worked in the theatre.
[edit] Sources
- Sadie, Stanley (ed) (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2.
- Warrack, John, and Ewan West (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869164-5.
