Jerger, Alfred
Jerger, Alfred
Jerger, Alfred, noted Austrian bass-baritone; b. Brunn, June 9, 1889; d. Vienna, Nov. 18, 1976. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music, where his teachers included Fuchs, Grädener, and Gutheil, and then became an operetta conductor at the Zürich Opera (1913). He began his vocal career in 1915, appearing as Lothario in Mignon at the Zürich Opera in 1917, and then sang at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (1919–21). He was a leading member of the Vienna State Opera (1921–53); also sang at the Salzburg Festivals, at London’s Covent Garden, and other major music centers of Europe. In 1947 he joined the faculty of the Vienna Academy of Music; was also a producer at the Vienna Volksoper. He created the role of the Man in Schoenberg’s Die Glückliche Hand (Vienna, Oct. 14, 1924) and the role of Mandryka in Strauss’s Arabella (Dresden, July 1, 1933). His other outstanding Strauss roles included Baron Ochs, Orestes, John the Baptist, and Barak. He also was a fine Leporello, Don Giovanni, Pizzaro, Hans Sachs, Beckmesser, Grand Inquisitor, and King Philip.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire