Lili Hungar

Hedwig Elisabeth Lili Hungar was born on 1 April 1877 in Leipzig (Germany). She received professional vocal training and embarked on a career as a concert and opera singer. Her early stage career included an engagement at the theatre in Rostock before she moved to Freiburg im Breisgau, where she became a long-standing member of the municipal theatre ensemble.
By the beginning of the 20th century Hungar was firmly established in Freiburg. She was particularly successful as an operatic soubrette, although her repertoire extended beyond the lighter character roles usually associated with this Fach. Contemporary accounts describe her as an accomplished stage performer who was also capable of singing parts from the youthful dramatic repertoire. Among her documented roles were Urbain in Meyerbeer’s Die Hugenotten, Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe. She also took part in performances of more demanding repertoire, including Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.
Hungar remained associated with the Freiburg theatre for many years and belonged to the ensemble when the company moved into its new theatre building in 1910. Her stage career appears to have continued until at least the years surrounding the First World War. When the Freiburg theatre was closed in 1915 because of the war, Hungar increasingly turned towards concert singing and vocal teaching.
Hungar remained active as a singer after her main operatic career had ended. On 5 January 1918 she gave the first performance of Julius Weismann’s Sieben Lieder, op. 70. Weismann later presented her with a copy of the printed edition bearing a personal dedication that referred to her participation in the premiere. Her association with this work illustrates that she continued to take part in Freiburg’s concert life and in performances of contemporary music.
Over time, however, vocal pedagogy became the central focus of her professional activity. Hungar founded her own singing school in Freiburg, located at Kaiser-Joseph-Straße 255. The school became a long-lasting institution and remained active for several decades. Public student recitals of the “Schülerkreis Lili Hungar” are documented in the 1930s, and performances by her singing school continued during the Second World War. Even in 1949 she was still listed in the Freiburg directory as a teacher of voice training and singing.
Among Hungar’s pupils were Freya Wolfsbruck, Marga Plachner and Hans Hofmann. Marga Plachner in particular later described Hungar as an important formative influence and became closely associated with her pedagogical work. Hungar reportedly intended to make Plachner her assistant, and Plachner later incorporated elements of Hungar’s vocal method into her own teaching.
Lili Hungar thus had a varied musical career extending over several decades. She began as a professional opera and concert singer, became known in Freiburg especially as a successful soubrette and stage performer, continued to appear as a concert singer after leaving the theatre, composed at least one published song, and eventually established herself as a respected singing teacher whose school remained active until the final years of her life.
Lili Hungar died on 18 December 1949 in Wiesneck near Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany).

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the song "Todeswege op.12" for voice and piano by Lili Hungar. The work sets a poem by Anna Ritter to music and was composed before 1904. A publication was done by the publishing house Ruckmich in 1904.