Max Staegemann

Max Staegemann (10 May 1843 – 29 January 1905) was a German actor, operatic baritone and theatre director.

Life Actor and singer Born in Bad Freienwalde in the Prussian Province of Brandenburg, Staegemann came from the Berlin merchant family Staegemann. His mother was Mathilde Leontine née Devrient (28 June 1809 in Berlin – 25 October 1884 in Leipzig), the sister of the actors Karl, Emil and Eduard Devrient, who was famous for her beauty. Staegemann belonged to the Hanover stage for twelve years and during this time developed into one of the first singers in his field. He was particularly in demand as an interpreter of Marschner and Wagner. Numerous invitations to guest appearances have taken him to all the major German opera houses. He enjoyed particular success in the title role of the opera Hans Heiling, as Lord Ruthwen in the opera der Vampyr, as Guilbert in The Templar and the Jewess, as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and as the title character in the operas Der Fliegende Holländer and William Tell. His star role as a singer, however, was that of Don Giovanni in Mozart's eponymous opera „eine wahre Meisterleistung in Gesang und Spiel."

Intendant In 1876, Staegemann moved to Königsberg, where he took over the directorship of the Stadttheater, which experienced an unimagined upswing under his leadership in a very short time. There he became a member of the Königsberg masonic lodge Immanuel. The productions of Heinrich Hoffmann's Armin and The Taming of the Shrew by Hermann Goetz caused a great stir. Under Staegemann's direction and with conductor Emil Paur, the German premiere of Carmen by Georges Bizet took place on 26 October 1879. He himself sang the role of Escamillo. Louis Köhler and Alexander Wyneken wrote glowing reviews, which initiated the worldwide triumph of the opera, which had failed in Paris.

From 1879, Staegemann lived in Berlin, where he worked as a concert singer and voice teacher.

In 1882, Staegemann, who had been appointed Kingly Prussian Kammersänger, was offered the position of Generalintendant to take over the lease of the Städtische Bühnen in Leipzig.

Critics