Kipnis, Alexander

Opera singer (bass)

Born: 13.02.1891 (01.02.1891 jul. calendar) in Schitomir (Ukraine)

died: 14.05.1978 in Westport (USA)

Kipnis spent his youth in the ghetto with his parents, three sisters and a brother. After the death of his father, he had to support the family at the age of 12. He began an apprenticeship as a carpenter.

The cantor of a neighboring synagogue accepted him into the community choir. Kipnis studied trombone and tuba in preparation for a career as a military musician. Shortly afterwards, he was accepted into the Warsaw Conservatory, continued his studies in instrumental music and finally graduated as a conductor. The director of the conservatory noticed the young man's beautiful voice and advised him to study singing. Kipnis studied singing in Berlin with Ernst Grenzebach (1871-1936). When the First World War broke out, he was interned as an "enemy alien".

As chance would have it, the commandant of the internment camp was a brother of the Wiesbaden artistic director Kurt von Mutzenbecher. After an audition, he arranged for Kipnis to join the Hamburg Opera, and from the 1917/18 season he was a member of the Wiesbaden opera ensemble for five years.

In Wiesbaden, he won the hearts of the audience with a total of 33 roles. In 1922, the doors of the Deutsches Opernhaus in Berlin opened for him, and from 1930 those of the Berlin State Opera. He also sang in Bayreuth from 1927-34. Then the racial laws of the National Socialists forced him to terminate his Berlin contract. He was a member of the Vienna State Opera from 1935-38.

After emigrating to the USA, he became a permanent member of the New York Met in 1940, where he alternated with Ezio Pinza (1892-1957) in the title role of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov". Kipnis lived in seclusion in his home in Westport, USA, until his death.