Ahlersmeyer, Mathieu (1896-1979)

German baritone. He made his debut at Mönchengladbach in 1929, as Wolfram. He appeared at the Kroll Opera, Berlin, under Klemperer, 1930-31, and in 1934 joined the Dresden Staatsoper: he sang there in the first performances of Die schweigsame Frau (1935) and Joseph Haas's Die Hochzeit des Jobs (1944). At the Berlin Staatsoper he created Egk's Peer Gynt (1938) in a production admired by Hitler, and at the 1947 Salzburg Festival co-created the title role in Einem's Dantons Tod. He sang with the Hamburg Staatsoper 1945-73 and in 1952 appeared with the company at the Edinburgh Festival as Matthias Grunewald, in the British stage première of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler.