DEVRIENT, EMIL

(1803-1872)

Actor. Emil Devrient's was perhaps the most versatile of all the talent among the Devrient family, playing lengthy heroic parts such as Hamlet, the Marquis Posa, Toquato Tasso, and Prince Hal while singing bass roles in numerous operas. His career as both actor and basso began in Bremen; he continued in both professions when he went to Leipzig in 1828 and inHamburg, where critics hailed his Hamlet as among the best of his generation. Devri-ent moved to Dresden in 1831, where he remained for the remainder of his career at the Court Theater with a concentration on spoken drama; from there he launched a company concomitant with his acting work in Dresden that toured England, among the first of its kind to play London in German. Emil Devrient was the brother ofCarl DevrientandEduard Devrientand the nephew ofLudwig Devrient.