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| {{picture|file=Bernhard Pollini.jpg|caption='''Bernhard Pollini''' (1838-1897)}} | | <includeonly>Die Goldenen Schuhe</includeonly><noinclude> {{bibitem |id=1932/12 |Contributors=Sonneman, K. (author) |Title=Die Goldenen Schuhe |In=Allgemeine Musikzeitung [Berlin] |Part=No. 49 |Edition=1932 |Imprint=1932 |Format=Article |Language=German |Notes=The first production of [[Cherevichki]] in Germany }} [[Category:Bibliography (1932)]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Bibliography (1932/012)}}</noinclude> |
| German operatic impresario (b. 16 December 1838 in [[Cologne]]; d. 27 November 1897 in [[Hamburg]]), born '''''Baruch Pohl'''''.
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| ==Biography== | |
| Of Jewish origins, he started off as an opera singer, making his stage debut as a tenor in [[Cologne]] in 1857. He then served for a while as a baritone with the Italian Opera Company in [[Saint Petersburg]], eventually becoming its manager. In 1874, he leased the Stadt-Theater in [[Hamburg]] and was able to rescue it from its catastrophic financial and artistic situation. Pollini, who was officially made a citizen of [[Hamburg]] in 1888, remained the theatre's director until his death almost a quarter of a century later. His focus was on building up a "star theatre" with high wages for the singers, high ticket prices, and a poorly paid orchestra. In this he was certainly successful, since the Stadt-Theater rose to become an opera-house of European class, even if some of the artists whom he worked with, notably [[Gustav Mahler]] (who served as the theatre's principal conductor from 1891 until 1897), expressed reservations about his policy. Over the years he took over other venues in [[Hamburg]], such as the Altona Theatre and the Thalia Theater, which earned for him the soubriquet "Mono-Pollini". He also provided assistance to [[Hermann Wolff]] in setting up the New Subscription Concerts in [[Hamburg]] which were conducted by [[Hans von Bülow]].
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| ==Tchaikovsky and Pollini== | |
| Pollini recognized early on the attractive power of Tchaikovsky's stage works, even for German audiences, and he hastened to acquire the performance rights to many of them, not just for [[Hamburg]]. Thus, in a letter to his publisher [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] at the end of 1890, Tchaikovsky explained that he had conceded to Pollini the performance rights for ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'', ''[[The Queen of Spades]]'', and ''[[The Sleeping Beauty]]'' in all the German and Austro-Hungarian theatres <ref name="note1"/>. Pollini eventually acquired the performance rights for ''[[The Maid of Orleans]]'', ''[[Mazepa]]'', and ''[[Iolanta]]'' as well. It seems that the first opera by the Russian composer which Pollini wanted to stage in [[Hamburg]] was ''[[The Queen of Spades]]'', and the opening night was scheduled for September 1891. Tchaikovsky had even promised that he would come to [[Hamburg]] to attend the performance. However, Pollini then changed his mind and decided that ''[[Onegin]]'' was to be presented to the German public first <ref name="note2"/>. At the end of 1891, Tchaikovsky duly arranged for [[Jurgenson]] to send Pollini the full score and parts for ''[[Onegin]]'' (a copy of the booklet with [[Josef Paleček]]'s stage directions for the 1884 [[Saint Petersburg]] production of ''[[Onegin]]'' had also reached Pollini thanks to [[Daniel Rahter]], the [[Hamburg]]-based German publisher of Tchaikovsky's works). Pollini insisted that Tchaikovsky come to [[Hamburg]] in January 1892 and conduct the first performance of his opera there. In the end, the difficulties which Tchaikovsky had at the dress rehearsal in following the recitatives in German induced him to cede the conductor's baton to [[Gustav Mahler]], who thereby came to conduct the German premiere of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]] ''on 7/19 January 1892 (after [[Prague]] in 1888 this was only the second time that the opera had been staged outside Russia). On the same day of the performance, Pollini explained to Tchaikovsky that he wanted to mount three more of his operas in [[Hamburg]] during the next season: ''[[Iolanta]]'', ''[[Mazepa]]'','' ''and ''[[The Queen of Spades]]'' <ref name="note3"/>. Ultimately, though, only the first of these projects was realised.
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| The German premiere of ''[[Iolanta]] ''in [[Hamburg]] on 22 December 1892/3 January 1893, conducted by [[Mahler]], came just two weeks after the opera's world premiere in [[Saint Petersburg]] and was not just the first performance of ''[[Iolanta]]'' outside Russia but the second performance of the opera as such. Three days after the [[Hamburg]] premiere, ''[[Iolanta]]'' was also staged at the Schwerin Court Theatre, whose director, [[Karl von Ledebur]], had been persuaded to take on that opera by Pollini. Although Tchaikovsky had promised Pollini that he would attend both the [[Hamburg]] and Schwerin premieres <ref name="note4"/>, he subsequently changed his mind and did not travel to Germany at the start of 1893. In the summer, though, he received a letter from Pollini imploring him to come to [[Hamburg]] for the next season's revival of ''[[Iolanta]]'', as well as to discuss with [[Mahler]] and himself the production of ''[[The Queen of Spades]]'' which they wanted to put on at the Stadt-Theater in the 1893/94 season <ref name="note5"/>. This latter idea did not work out, and in fact ''[[The Queen of Spades]]'' would not be staged in [[Hamburg]] until 1953.
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| Tchaikovsky did, however, come to [[Hamburg]] in September for the revival of ''[[Iolanta]]'', which had been enthusiastically reviewed by [[Josef Sittard]] at its first performance there eight months earlier. During his brief, and last, stay in the Hanseatic city (25 August/6 September-29 August/10 September 1893) the composer stayed at Pollini's house, and it was on 26 August/7 September 1893 that he heard ''[[Iolanta]]'' on the [[Hamburg]] stage, again conducted by [[Mahler]], as part of a double-bill which featured, after the interval, the first performance in [[Hamburg]] of Leoncavallo's ''Pagliacci'', with [[Berta Foerstrová-Lautererová]] as Nedda. The Czech soprano's husband, [[Josef Bohuslav Foerster]], left an interesting account of his meeting with Tchaikovsky at Pollini's house the following day (see the article on [[Foerster]]).
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| ==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
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| 2 letters from Tchaikovsky to Bernhard Pollini have survived, dating from 1892, both of which have been translated into English on this website:
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| * '''[[Letter 4620]]''' – 16/28 February 1892, from [[Moscow]]
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| * '''[[Letter 4805]]''' – 14/26 November 1892, from [[Saint Petersburg]]
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| 17 letters from Pollini to the composer, dating from 1891 to 1893, are preserved in the [[Klin]] House-Museum Archive.
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| ==Bibliography==
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| * {{bib|2006/6}} (2006)
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| * {{bib|2018/14}} (2018)
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| ==Notes and References==
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| <references>
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| <ref name="note1">[[Letter 4278]] to [[Pyotr Jurgenson]], 23 December 1890/4 January 1891.</ref>
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| <ref name="note2">See [[Letter 4469]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 5/17 September 1891, and [[Letter 4477]] to [[Sophie Menter]], 22 September/4 October 1891.</ref>
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| <ref name="note3">See [[Letter 4593]] to [[Vladimir Davydov]], 7/19 January 1892.</ref>
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| <ref name="note4">See [[Letter 4805]] to Bernhard Pollini, 14/26 November 1892.</ref>
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| <ref name="note5">See [[Letter 4984]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 22 July/3 August 1893.</ref> | |
| </references>
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| [[Category:People|Pollini, Bernhard]]
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| [[Category:Correspondents|Pollini, Bernhard]]
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| [[Category:Impresarios|Pollini, Bernhard]]
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