Background
Joseph Schmidt was born on March 4, 1904 in Davideny (Ukrainian: Davydivka) village in the Storozhynets district of the Bukovina province of Austria-Hungary, which became part of Romania after World War I and is now part of Ukraine.
(Joseph Schmidt, L. Biscardi, Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, Eduardo...)
Joseph Schmidt, L. Biscardi, Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, Eduardo di Capua, Luigi Denza, Gaetano Donizetti, Friedrich von Flotow, Walter Wilhelm Gotze, Wilhelm Kienzl, Ralph Benatzky - Joseph Schmidt: The Complete EMI Recordings.
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(God wants us to share our lives and our hearts with him. ...)
God wants us to share our lives and our hearts with him. In this updated and expanded edition of a spiritual classic, Christian Brother Joseph Schmidt gently leads us to recognize that honest reflection before God on the ordinary experiences of our lives is the very means of our spiritual growth. As we speak to God about our personal story, we can explore the significance of our unrest, our joys, our fears, and our hopes. Then the Holy Spirit will lead us to self-knowledge and the freedom to accept and appreciate ourselves and our lives as they are. This book goes beyond any specific way of praying to the very heart of prayer: intimacy with God.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593251165/?tag=2022091-20
Joseph Schmidt was born on March 4, 1904 in Davideny (Ukrainian: Davydivka) village in the Storozhynets district of the Bukovina province of Austria-Hungary, which became part of Romania after World War I and is now part of Ukraine.
In addition to German, which was his first language, and Yiddish, he learned Hebrew and became fluent in Romanian, French and English. His first vocal training was as a boy alto in the Czernowitz Synagogue. His talents were quickly recognised and by 1924 he was featured in his first solo recital in Czernowitz singing traditional Jewish songs and arias by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and Bizet. Soon he moved to Berlin and took piano and singing lessons from Professor Hermann Weissenborn at the Königliche Musikschule. He returned to Romania for his military service.
He started his concert career at the age of twenty, and also appeared as cantor in Czernowitz. Later Schmidt continued to perform as cantor at both the Leopoldstadt Synagogue in Vienna and at the Adas Yisroel Synagogue in Berlin.
Schmidt studied at the Berlin conservatory and in 1928 began his career as a radio singer. After gaining popularity in Germany, Schmidt moved to Belgium in 1933, and laterto Vienna, where he had immense success. He soon rivaled Richard Tauber as the most popular singer of the time. A year later Schmidt visited Palestine and also performed regularly in England, France, the United States and the Far East.
In 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium, Schmidt was saved from arrest by gentile friends. He attempted to reach America through France, but never made it. Eventually he reached Switzerland where he was interned in a refugee camp in Gyrenbad, near Zurich. There he contracted a serious throat ailment from which he died.
Schmidt was known for his great lyric expressiveness and for his rendition of light songs and operetta. His recordings were best-sellers at the time. As he was only four feet ten inches in height (he was known as the "pocket tenor' as well as 'the German Caruso"), he seldom appeared in opera. His recordings and radio broadcasts, however, were very popular. He starred in his own quasi-autobiographical movie "My Song Goes Round the World". It was the story of a dwarf-like singer whose voice arouses the passions of women, but whose appearance results only in their pity. The premiere of the film on May 9, 1933, in Berlin, was a stunning success. Among the dignitaries was Josef Goebbels, the Reich’s propaganda minister, who was reported to have said confidentially, "we should send such films abroad; they will attest to our liberal positions towards the Jews."
Today opera lovers can still enjoy Schmidt's silvery voice on compact disc featuring in some of his best loved arias.
(Joseph Schmidt - Joseph Schmidt: The Complete EMI Recordings)
(Joseph Schmidt, L. Biscardi, Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, Eduardo...)
(God wants us to share our lives and our hearts with him. ...)
He had a sweet lyric tenor voice with an easy high register, sailing up even to a high D. His voice was also agile, and he possessed a perfect and dependable trill, which he demonstrated on his recordings of "Ah si ben mio" from Il trovatore and "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore. His warm timbre was perfectly suited for the melodies of Schubert and Lehár. His popular song recordings were the best-sellers of that age.