Hensel, Heinrich
Hensel, Heinrich
Hensel, Heinrich, German tenor; b. Neustadt, Oct. 29, 1874; d. Hamburg, Feb. 23, 1935. He studied with Gustav Walter in Vienna and with Eduard Bellwidt in Frankfurt am Main. He sang in Freiburg im Breisgau (1897–1900), Frankfurt am Main (1900–06), and then at Wiesbaden (1906–11), where Siegfried Wagner heard him and engaged him to create the chief tenor part in his opera Banadietrich (Karlsruhe, 1910) and also to sing Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival. He obtained excellent success; subsequently sang at Covent Garden, London (1911–14). He made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. as Lohengrin (Dec. 22, 1911) and was hailed by the press as one of the finest Wagnerian tenors; he also appeared with the Chicago Opera (1911–12); he then was a leading Heldentenor at the Hamburg Opera (1912–29). He was married to the soprano Elsa Hensel-Schweitzer (1878–1937), who sang in Dessau (1898–1901) and then in Frankfurt am Main (from 1901).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire