Hans Breuer

27 April 1868 Cologne – 11 October 1929 Perchtoldsdorf

Breuer's year of birth is usually given as 1870, but that's wrong, as evidenced by official documents filled out by his own hand and now kept at the Vienna Communal Archives (Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv) – see below.

Breuer studied voice in Cologne with Benno Stolzenberg, then in Bayreuth with Julius Kniese (and that means: under the aegis of Cosima Wagner).

He made his debut actually at the Bayreuth Festival in 1894; he was to sing there regularly through 1918. His everyday job was at the opera in Wrocław/Breslau first (1896/97), in 1900 at the Met, and from the end of 1900 to his death at the Vienna Court (later: State) Opera.

He hardly ever sang anything but comprimario parts; from the very smallest one-sentence parts up to Steuermann, Melot, David and Mime in both Rheingold and Siegfried. For his Mimes, which he first sang in Bayreuth in 1896, he was really famous; he sang them at the Met, in Vienna, in Munich, in Berlin, in Zürich, and again and again in Bayreuth, of course.

From 1919, he was also a stage director both at the Vienna State Opera and at the Salzburg Festival, while continuing also his tenor comprimario career.

Reference, document source

Hans Breuer sings

Das Rheingold: Wer hälfe mir, with Otto Briesemeister (Loge)

Zonophon, Wien, March 1904
G1023a  Selbstgeständnis (Wolf)						22210
G1024a  Tannhäuser: Den Bronnen, den uns Wolfram nannte 		22195
G1025a  Das Rheingold: Wer hälfe mir                    		22196
G1026a  Siegfried: Als zullendes Kind zog ich dich auf  		22197
G1027a  Die Zauberflöte: Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden  		22198
G1028a  Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Am Jordan Sankt Johannes stand	22199
G22b    Tannhäuser: Den Bronnen, den uns Wolfram nannte			X-22137
G23b    Contes d'Hoffmann: Um im Dienst es recht zu machen  		X-22138
G24b    Das Rheingold: Wer hälfe mir                    		X-22139
G25b    Der Tambour (Wolf)		                     		X-22146

Grammophon, Bayreuth, July 1904
BAY1..e Siegfried: Zwangvolle Plage					unpublished
1130e   Das Rheingold: Wer hälfe mir (w. Otto Briesemeister)		2-42922
1131e   Siegfried: Als zullendes Kind zog ich dich auf  		2-42923

Grammophon, Wien, June 1908
(w. Leo Slezak, Gerhard Stehmann, Richard Mayr, Arthur Preuss & Ferdinand Marian)
13223u	Les huguenots: Will meinem guten Recht vertrauen		2-44427
13224u	Tannhäuser: Als du in kühnem Sange				2-44428	

Zonophon, Wien, March 1915 (all w. Georg Maikl, Carl Rittmann & Lorenz Corvinus)
17462L	Patriotische Lieder (likely a medley)				524436, 524461, 
									Grammophon 13375
17463L	Mein Österreich (Suppé)						524437, 
									Grammophon 13375
17464L	Die Wacht am Rhein (Wilhelm)					524438, 524462, 
									Grammophon 13376
17465L	Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze unsern Kaiser, unser Land (Haydn)	524439, 
									Grammophon 13376