Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld (2 July 183621 July 1865) was a German heldentenor. The son of painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, he was trained as a vocalist at the Kreuzschule in Dresden and the Leipzig Conservatory. He was a resident artist at the Karlsruhe Hofoper from 1854–1860, and the Semperoper in Dresden from 1860–1865. He was the son of the famous painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and nephew of artist Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld. He began his musical education at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, and then pursued further studies at the Leipzig Conservatory

In 1855 Schnorr von Carolsfeld continued to perform in smaller parts at the Karlsruhe Hofoper in Vincenzo Bellini's Norma and Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz.

Schnorr von Carolsfeld was also admired for his work in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi.

In addition to his work in opera, Schnorr von Carolsfeld also had success in Dresden as a singer of lieder and oratorio works. and the part of Tristan was given to Alois Ander when the opera went into rehearsal in Vienna.

The Vienna production of Tristan und Isolde was ill fated. Anders was plagued with memory problems, and complained that the Act III monologue was impossible to sing. He ultimately lost his voice, and not long after the soprano, Meyer-Dustmann, was also having vocal problems singing her part. Sources vary as to the number of rehearsals that happened in Vienna before the opera was abandoned in April 1863, with one source claiming a total of fifty-four rehearsals, some fifty-seven rehearsals, and others 77 rehearsals.

With the assistance of King Ludwig II, a second attempt to give a first staging of Tristan und Isolde was made, this time in Munich. On 10 June 1865, a month before his death, Schnorr von Carolsfeld and his wife created the title roles in the world premiere of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera.

Schnorr von Carolsfed's death shortly after performing the difficult role of Tristan created a mythos While medically attributed to heart failure, Schnorr von Carolsfeld's death created a legend around the challenges of singing the character of Tristan; with some claiming the physical demands of singing the role were responsible for his premature death at the age of 29. Others, have linked Ludwig's death to several other misfortunes plaguing artists connected to Wagner, including the suicide of pianist Joseph Rubinstein and the death of tenor Alois Ander in 1864, the latter of whom was plagued with insanity not long after rehearsing the role of Tristan in 1862-1863. The French poet Charles Baudelaire went so far as to accuse Wagner's music of being a part of "satanic religion" and using the tragic death of Schnorr von Carolsfed as evidence that "Wagner's music tapped into devilish forces".

In his diary, Wagner blamed himself for Schnorr von Carolsfed's early death, and he believed he pushed the singer too far. Wagner wrote the following about Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld after his death, "In him I lost … the great granite block needed to raise my building, and found myself directed to seek his replacement in a pile of bricks."

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