Wotans Abschied

Friedrich Weidemann (b. 1 January 1871, Ratzeburg, Germany; d, 30 January 1919, Vienna), baritone. Friedrich Weidemann came to the Vienna Court Opera in 1903, and was regarded primarily as a Wagner and Mozart specialist. He played a number of different parts under Mahler, including in the restaging of Richard Wagner's Rheingold on 23 January 1905 (in a production featuring stage design and costumes by Alfred Roller. The full cast of the production included Demuth as Wotan, Breuer as Mime, Schmedes as Loge, Haydter as Alberich, Mildenburg as Fricka, Gutheil-Schoder as Freia, Petru as Erda, Elizza as Woglinde and Kittel as Flosshilde. Weidemann sang the part of Wotan in the restaging of The Valkyrie on 4 February 1907, alongside Hilgermann as Fricka, Schmedes as Siegmund and Förster-Lauterer as Sieglinde, and played the title role in a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni on 21 December 1905, where he was joined by Maikl as Don Ottavio, Gutheil-Schoder as Donna Elvira, Lucie Weidt as Donna Anna and Wilhelm Hesch as Leporello. Mahler rated Weidemann very highly as a member of the ensemble, and he also sang in the premiere of “Der Tamboursg'sell” from Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) on 29 January 1905.