Brünhilde, heilige Braut – Schwur – part 2

Erik Schmedes (b. 27 August 1868, Gjentofte, Denmark, d. 21 March 1931, Vienna), tenor.
Erik Schmedes joined the Vienna Court Opera in 1898, and was one of the ensemble’s leading heroic tenors. His many notable performances under Mahler included playing Siegfried (alongside Anna von Mildenburg as Brünnhilde) on the opening night of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung on 4 September 1898; performing in the premiere of the opera Es war einmal (Once upon a Time) by Alexander Zemlinsky on 22 January 1900; playing Hermann (alongside Berta Förster-Lauterer as Lisa) in the first performance of Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades) by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky on 9 December 1902, and playing Tristan on the opening night of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (in a production featuring set design by Alfred Roller and Anna von Mildenburg as Isolde) on 21 February 1903. He also performed in the premiere of Pfitzner's Die Rose vom Liebesgarten (The Rose from the Garden of Love) on 6 April 1905, played Siegmund in the premiere of Wagner’s The Valkyrie on 4 February 1907 (alongside Weidemann, Förster-Lauterer and Mildenburg, in a production designed by Alfred Roller), and sang on the last opening night of the Mahler era in Gluck's Iphigenie in Aulis on 18 March 1907. This production also featured sets designed by Alfred Roller, and Schmedes starred alongside Gutheil-Schoder, Mildenburg, Weidt, Demuth and Hesch.

It can be assumed that Erik Schmedes rated Mahler highly as director of the Court Opera, since this newspaper report names him as one of the performers who turned up to wave him off from Vienna’s Westbahnhof on 9 December 1907, as he left to take up his new post at the Metropolitan Opera in New York: “Despite Mahler’s exemplary restraint and reluctance to engage in public displays of emotion – both of which were evident in his low-key departure from the Opera House, he was unable to prevent a large number of friends and admirers from gathering at the station on the occasion of his departure from Vienna. His farewell had an immensely warm quality to it, and all those involved found it deeply moving. Even an hour before the departure of the Orient Express, which was to transport Mahler, accompanied by his wife, first to Paris and then on to Cherbourg, where they would board the Hamburg America Line’s Augusta Victoria, the platform at the Westbahnhof was already packed with people. Mahler’s relatives and closest friends, who had turned up with vast quantities of flowers, were joined by various ladies and gentlemen of Viennese high society. The unofficial, intimate nature of the farewell was demonstrated by the composition of the circle of individuals present, the majority of whom came from the next generation of young Viennese musicians. A number of members of the Court Opera and the Philharmonic Orchestra also turned out at the station. The notable individuals in attendance included the composers Schönberg and Zemlinsky, and Kammersänger Schmedes [...]" (Neue Freie Presse, 9 December 1907).

Erik Schmedes was a very popular singer, and was idolised by Alma Maria Schindler prior to her marriage to Mahler, as her diaries show: “– then a Prater trip. Mahler – Schmedes. S. looked at me, but did not say hello [...]. But the man is a warrior, a real hero. He is so tall – and so handsome, too. I love his figure." "Schmedes – He didn't see me. But [seeing him] gave me a jolt. And that movement inside me frightened me. Now I know that I am incredibly, furiously attracted to him. There is not a trace of love there – I do not respect him enough for that – it is no more than sensual lust.” (Diary entries by Alma Maria Schindler, 9 and 23 October 1900).