The Story of a Famous Tenor
MORNINGTON (Dunedin) reader asks for information about’ the famous German tenor Josef Schmidt (right). Not a great deal is known of him. The current impression is that he died in a German concentration camp, but actually his death came when he was an inmate of an internment camp in Switzerland-a _ very different matter. I am told that he fitst 4 ‘became famous in 1930 when he at- _ tended the Bounty Fairs held in Ant- | werp. The song that brought him the _ greatest applause was "Ik hou van Hol- | land." a melodious tribute to the charm of the Netherlands which gives an evocative little sound picture of the old mills flanking the canals. "Holland is a veritable fairyland," Josef Schmidt | sang. He was extremely short-a drawback to appearing on the opera stage. My informant says, too, that he had a deformed foot. Schmidt, who. was born in Rumania in 1905, was "discovered" by the motion picture industry. He made a short tour of the U.S.A, in 1937, and in 1938, when his singing angered the Nazis, he lived for a_ while in France. Then, when the Germans in- ' vaded France he fled to Switzerland. His hea!th was poor, he was unable to _stand the strain of internment camp
life; and he died in 1943. Josef Schmidt’s songs are as popular as ever and few request programmes do not include "Today is the Happiest Day of My Life" and "A Star Falls from Heaven." If any reader has any further information about Schmidt, it would be welcome, i
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 723, 22 May 1953, Page 24
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262The Story of a Famous Tenor New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 723, 22 May 1953, Page 24
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