Karl Laufkötter (18 May 1899 in
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, Germany
– 14 December 1993), was a German operatic tenor who specialised in character-tenor roles.
In the 1930s and 40s he was engaged by the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
as one of their leading tenors, famously performing Mime in
Siegfried (opera)
''Siegfried'' (), WWV 86C, is the third of the four music dramas that constitute ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), by Richard Wagner. It premiered at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first co ...
alongside
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior (20 March 1890 – 18 March 1973) was a Danish-American opera singer. He was the preeminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s and has come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type. Late in his career, Me ...
.
Other roles sung during his time at the company include: Vashek in
The Bartered Bride
''The Bartered Bride'' ( cz, Prodaná nevěsta, links=no, ''The Sold Bride'') is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the ...
, Narraboth in
Salome (opera)
''Salome'', Op. 54, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss. The libretto is Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of the 1891 French play '' Salomé'' by Oscar Wilde, edited by the composer. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar ...
, Walther in
Tannhauser (opera), Valzacchi in
Der Rosenkavalier
(''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...
, Monostatos in
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...
, and Jacquino in
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with ...
.
References
1899 births
1993 deaths
German operatic tenors
Musicians from Düsseldorf
{{Germany-singer-stub