De Cortez Wolffungen

              1900

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Hochachtungsvollsh De Cortez Wolffungen



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TRANSLATION
Dear Mr. De Cortez Wolffungen

In answer to your favor of 2nd, I have the honor to inform you that the Imperial Embassador, his excellency, (Count Von Bernstoff,) will be pleased to have his name among the patrons of your enterprise, but could not further support your work by personal propaganda on account of so many other obligations.

Very respectfully,




DE CORTEZ WOLFFUNGEN
Dramatic Tenor

Formerly Director of Grand Opera Chorus, Philadelphia Pa.; Grand Opera Chorus, Buffalo, N. Y.; Grand Opera Chorus, Washington. D. C.; Atlanta Music Festival Association, Atlanta, Ga.; North West Side Opera Co., Chicago, Ill.; German Opera Co., Chicago, Ill.

Endorsements by DR. KARL MUCK, Conductor of The Boston Symphony Orchestra, and HOFRATH VON SCHUCH, Director of the Royal Opera, Dresden;

De Cortez Wolffungen has a Repertoire of 50 Grand Operas' the leading Tenor roles of which he sang during 15 years of his European Career.

He makes a feature of the German Lieder and French Chansons, and the artistic rendition of his songs is illustrated by the following American Press notices on page 5 and 6.

DE CORTEZ WOLFFUNGEN, as Promoter of Grand Opera, has received the following newspapers headlines of his productions in which he sang the leading tenor role:


Excellent presentation of Il Trovatore.
Philadelphia Enquirer


A successful presentation of Il Trovatore.
Philadelphia Ledger


Mr. Wolffungen sang Joseph with admirable delivery and fine romantic style.
Philadelphia Times


Mehul's Opera Joseph admirably sung in Musical Fund Hall.
Philadelphia Ledger


Opera Chorus scores big hit.  An admirable production of Cavalleria Rusticana.
Buffalo Courier


Cavalleria Rusticana splendidly presented.  Buffalo Grand Opera achieves distinct triumph.
Evening News


Faust well given.  Opera success repeated.
Buffalo Express


Buffalo Grand Opera Society does excellently with Gounod's Masterpiece.
Buffalo Evening News


De Cortez Wolffungen gives fine performances of Grand Opera.
Musical America




De Cortez Wolffungen, Royal operatic Tenor and Concertsinger is open for summer engagements, Chautauqua, either single or with his quartett.  Unlimited repertoire, sings in four languages.


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TRANSLATION
I state with pleasure that I have known Herr Wolffungen, in Europe as a very talented and gifted Singer and Musician and can recommend him highly to everybody.

Ernst Von Schuch,
New York, Mar. 30, 1900   General Director, Royal Opera, Dresden




PRESS COMMENTS

Mr. Wolffungen's programme included songs in German, English, French and Italian.  He is a dramatic tenor of superb power and method, and his songs were almost equally effective with each language selected.  His range is wide and his interpretation deeply interesting and all the more so from its exceedingly dramatic form.  In Mr. Wolffungen's numbers are included songs from Schubert, Wolf, Strauss, Tosti, Gounod, Puccini and Wagner and his work aroused the very greatest enthusiasm.
Buffalo Evening News


Mr. Wolffungen in the role of Thriddu in Cavalleria Rusticana made a distinct success.  His voice rang out resonant and clear, and his dramatic action was graceful and convincing.  Especially enjoyable was the Drinking Song, and the audience tried very hard to secure its repetition.
Buffalo Express


Mr. Wolffungen, who possesses a fine tenor voice of dramatic quality and wonderful range, was heard in a number of selections, singing in German, French, Italian and English, and was enthusiastically received, this being his first appearance before a Buffalo audience, When the Dew is Shining, by Rubinstein; The Lover's Pledge, by Richard Strauss, and Gounod's Spring, were all sung with exquisite feeling while the heavier numbers from La Boheme and Lohengrin were splendid efforts, demonstrating his versatility and bringing out the full strength of his voice.
The Buffalo Courier


Mr. Wolffungen who sang the leading role, has an excellent tenor voice of wide compass, fine musical quality and a method that combines virility and refinement.  He has a good presence, a confidenct though modest manner, and it was evident that the score was entirely familiar to him.  Whether in the solos or the concerted numbers, Mr. Wolffungen was equally at home and his clear, bell-like tones cut the air distinctly, yet without striving even with the strong chorus for a background.  He made an admirable impression.
Public Ledger, Philadelphia


The programme presented by Herr Wolffungen at his recital at Carroll Institute bore striking evidence of the breadth of his musical knowledge and his catholicity of taste.  His selections sung in English, French, Italian and German were by the best composers of each nation—Schubert, Franz, Richard Strauss, Henschel, Wagner, Gounod and Leoncavallo—and he showed himself at home in the French chanson, the German lied and in Wagnerian and Italian opera.  Herr Wolffungen's voice is a ringing tenor, robust in character, of unusual carrying power and ringing in its modulation, from the vigorous declamation of Wagner to the delicacy of expression required for such songs as Rubinstein's Es blinkt der Thau.
Washington Evening Star


Mr. Wolffungen sang last evening with a sentiment and appreciation which always characterizes his work, opening the concert with the famous Gebet from Rienzi.  Afterwards he was heard in the exquisit duo from the III Act of Lohrengrin, and the love duet from the I Act of Walkuere, by Richard Wagner.
Public Ledger, Phila., Indpt.


Herr Wolffungen appeared for the first time in Pittsburg in a recital before the Women's Press Club, assisted by Charles Wakefield Cadman.  His singing was of unusual interest.  The artist is a dramatic tenor of rare magnetism, and he keeps his audience interested from start to finish.
Pittsburg Bulletin


After the audience had listened for two hours to the splendid programme, the artist was given such spontaneous applause that an encore was called for, Mr. Wolffungen again scoring a triumph in his selection from Freischuetz.
Atlanta Constitution




PRESS COMMENTS

Herr Wolffungen was heard to great advantage in the ballroom of the Hotel Ansley Friday afternoon.  He came with a beautifully placed voice, well handled as to shading and phrasing, resonant and full of timbre.  Herr Wolffungen is dramatic and full of temperament.  Indeed his voice is so full of color it holds one interested from the beginning to the end of his rendition.
Die Loreley, by Liszt, was wonderfully worked up and was most grateful to the musical ear.  Traeume (dreams), by Wagner, a sketch on which Tristan and Isolde was built.  It was treated by the singer in a most finished way.  Herr Wolffungen should give us more German opera.  He is made for it and carries the temperament of it.  His conception and exquisite fineness in rendition of Strauss' two songs, Morgen (tomorrow) and Heimliche Aufforderung.  The great tenor recitative and aria from Weber's Der Freischuetz carrying much of the German spirit, was given an encore, leaving all present imbued with the great German enthusiasm for art.  Even after a two-hour programme, ending with the superb encore, the audience sat motionless.

The Atlanta Journal


Mr. Wolffungen, the director, was able to bring out his own vocal abilities which surprised many, considering the strain he was under for the last few weeks in staging the entire grand opera Faust.
Musical America


The singing of Herr Wolffungen at the Auditorium was highly finished work and was greatly enjoyed.  While repeatedly urged to respond to encores, he gave but one song not upon the programme.  This was the Sob Song from Pagliacci.
Atlanta Constitution


One of the pleasing events of the afternoon was the appearance of Herr Wolffungen, who sang Verdi's Celeste Aida with keenest regard for its expressed melody, and his voice technique in this number was but little less than magnificent.
Atlanta Constitution


Gounod's Faust with prominent professionals in the leading roles and with a chorus of seventy local singers scored a distinct triumph at the Columbia Theatre yesterday.  Primarily the success of the production belongs to De Cortez Wolffungen who founded the Washington Grand Opera Chorus last winter and who trained it artistically both in singing and general stage business.  The young men and women of the chorus body sang spontaneously and with really splendid precision, doing their best work (vocal and dramatic) in the scene with the dying Valentine.  Herr Wolffungen evidenced his ability for such important work as the chorus training of the famous lyric drama by his own conception of the Soldier, which he carried through with artistic realism.
Washington, D. C., Evening Star

NAMES OF PATRONS AND PATRONESSES IN WASHINGTON, D. C.

His Excellency, Court von Bernstorff, German Ambassador; Miss Mabel Boardman, Mrs. Herbert Wadsworth, Mrs. H. C. Perkins, Mrs. Sinclair Bowen, Mrs. A. M. Blair, Mrs. Clarence B. Rheem, Madame Chang, Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, Mrs. Charles J. Bell, Mrs. Arthur Lee, Mrs. Stephen B. Elkins, Mrs. Fred E. Chapin, Mrs. George Ed. Foss, Mrs. Edwin W. Higgins, Mrs. T. L. MacDonald, Mrs John M. Gitterman, Mrs. Isaac Gans, Mrs. Suzanne Oldberg, Mrs. Hobart Brooks, Mrs. Victor Kauffman, Mrs. Winthrop Murray Crane.



DE CORTEZ WOLFFUNGEN
OPERA   TENOR   CONCERT

Studio
CHICAGO KIMBALL HALL
Room 1201

Private Address
4611 SHERIDAN ROAD
Phone Ravenswood 3270

Chicago, Illinois