Hans Hotter
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Hans Hotter (19 January 19096 December 2003) was a German operatic
bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...
. He stood 6 ft 4 in and his appearance was striking. His voice and diction were equally recognisable.


Early life and career

Born in
Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...
,
Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
, Hotter studied with Matthäus Roemer in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. He worked as an organist and choirmaster before making his operatic debut in
Opava Opava (; german: Troppau, pl, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava (river), Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a histori ...
in 1930. He performed in Germany and Austria under the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime, avoiding pressure on performers to join the Nazi Party, and made some appearances outside the country, including concerts under the baton of
Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the Un ...
in Amsterdam, who advised him that if Hotter could not leave his family members he had little alternative but to remain in Germany. Hotter was unable to pursue an international career until his
Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...
debut in 1947. After that, he sang in all the major opera houses of Europe. He made his
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 ...
debut as the title character in ''
Der fliegende Holländer ' (''The Flying Dutchman''), WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. The central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden in 1843. Wagner claim ...
'' in 1950. In four seasons at the Met, he performed 35 times in 13 roles, almost all Wagnerian. Probably Hotter's best known vocal achievement was his Wotan in ''
Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...
'', beginning with the ''Rheingold'' Wotan and ending with the ''Siegfried'' Wanderer, which he first sang in the German provinces in his early 20s, and adding the ''Walküre'' shortly thereafter at the German theatre in Prague; he played the roles until the mid-1960s, by which time his voice underwent a brief crisis owing to severe asthma, causing him to miss the first season of the post-war Bayreuth Festival in 1951, but he sang there for several years starting in 1952. His interpretation of Wotan was first recorded in a 1930s studio version of Act II of ''Die Walküre''. In ''Die Walküre'' and ''Siegfried'' he was recorded in
Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...
's famous Ring Cycle in the early 1960s, conducted by
Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-servin ...
and produced by
John Culshaw John Royds Culshaw, OBE (28 May 192427 April 1980) was a pioneering English classical record producer for Decca Records. He produced a wide range of music, but is best known for masterminding the first studio recording of Wagner's ''Der Rin ...
. His interpretation of the role of Wotan was also captured in live recordings at the
Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...
conducted by
Clemens Krauss Clemens Heinrich Krauss (31 March 189316 May 1954) was an Austrian conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. Krauss was born in Vienna to Clementine Krauss, ...
and
Joseph Keilberth Joseph Keilberth (19 April 1908 – 20 July 1968) was a German conductor who specialised in opera. Career He started his career in the State Theatre of his native city, Karlsruhe. In 1940 he became director of the German Philharmonic Orches ...
in the mid-1950s. He also directed a complete ''
Ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
'' at Covent Garden from 1961 to 1964. His portrayal of Gurnemanz in ''
Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...
'' was preserved on record in several of
Hans Knappertsbusch Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Germ ...
's live recordings from
Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of U ...
. An admired Hans Sachs in ''
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...
'', Hotter nevertheless preferred to sing the smaller and lower-pitched role of Pogner later in his career, because its tessitura was better suited to his voice. Also, he was afflicted in later years with a chronic back injury. Similarly, he sang in ''
Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...
'' first as the baritone Amfortas when he was younger and switched to the bass Gurnemanz later, and to the even lower bass Titurel after that. He was also celebrated for his Pizarro in
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's ''
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 ...
'', of which a live 1960s recording from Covent Garden was issued for the first time in 2005 under the Testament label. Hotter had a close working relationship with
Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
. He performed in the premieres of the Strauss late operas: as the commandant in the 1938 opera ''
Friedenstag ''Friedenstag'' (''Peace Day'') is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, his Opus 81 and TrV 271, to a German libretto by Joseph Gregor. The opera was premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 24 July 1938 and dedicated to the leading singer ...
'', as Olivier in '' Capriccio'' in 1942 and the Jupiter in private dress rehearsal in 1944 of ''
Die Liebe der Danae ''Die Liebe der Danae'' (''The Love of Danae'') is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to a February 1937 German libretto by Joseph Gregor, based on an outline written in 1920, "Danae, or The Marriage of Convenience", by Hugo von Hofmannsth ...
''. After the end of the war, he also sang Sir Morosus in ''
Die Schweigsame Frau ''Die schweigsame Frau'' (''The Silent Woman''), Op. 80, is a 1935 comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with libretto by Stefan Zweig after Ben Jonson's '' Epicoene, or the Silent Woman''. Composition history Since '' Elektra'' and ''Der ...
'' with the
Vienna Philharmonic The Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; german: Wiener Philharmoniker, links=no) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. It ...
conducted by
Karl Böhm Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Life and career Education Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...
. Strauss dedicated his song "Erschaffen und beleben" to Hotter, who also recorded many of the songs of Strauss. Hotter's daughter Gabriele married Strauss' grandson Richard in 1962. Although his international fame was almost entirely in the German repertoire, in Germany and Austria he was also known for performing
Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
in the vernacular and was, for example, a popular
Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...
and a formidable Grand Inquisitor in ''
Don Carlos ''Don Carlos'' is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the dramatic play '' Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Friedri ...
'', a role he also performed in Italian in several theatres, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He performed, and recorded, several non-German opera roles in German translation, including Count Almaviva (Mozart), Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky) and Don Basilio (Rossini). Hotter was also known as a
lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...
er singer. He left several recordings of Schubert lieder, including ''
Winterreise ''Winterreise'' (, ''Winter Journey'') is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert ( D. 911, published as Op. 89 in 1828), a setting of 24 poems by German poet Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two song cycles on Müller' ...
'', ''
Schwanengesang ''Schwanengesang ( Swan Song)'', 957, is a collection of 14 songs written by Franz Schubert at the end of his life and published posthumously: # Liebesbotschaft (text: Ludwig Rellstab) # Kriegers Ahnung (Rellstab) # Frühlingssehnsucht (Rells ...
'', and other songs. He also sang sacred music and left recordings of Bach cantatas and one recording of Haydn's ''
Die Schöpfung ''The Creation'' (german: Die Schöpfung) is an oratorio written between 1797 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn (Hoboken catalogue, Hob. XXI:2), and considered by many to be one of his masterpieces. The oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the ...
'' in which he sang both the low bass role of Archangel Raphael and the soft, high baritone role of Adam. A passionate anti-Nazi, Hotter used to make fun of Hitler at parties and refused to take part in the Bayreuth Festival during the Third Reich because of the Festival's association with Hitler and his politics. According to Hotter's obituary in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', Hitler kept Hotter's records in his private collection. When Hotter was interrogated about this at a postwar denazification hearing, he answered that the Pope had some of them too.''The Times'' (13 December 2003) Hotter never completely retired from the stage, making his final public appearance in his nineties after several seasons singing such significant character roles as Schigolch in
Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...
's twelve-tone opera ''
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''. He was a notable narrator in Schoenberg's ''
Gurre-Lieder ' is a large cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen (translated from Danish to German by ). The title means "songs of Gurre", ref ...
'', a role he continued to take well into his eighties.


Anecdotes

At a brilliant performance of Walküre in Covent Garden in 1961 a mishap occurred during the final scene when Wotan is supposed to ever so slowly, silently depart from the stage. Right after striking Brünnhild's rock to call on Loge to surround it with a cordon of fire, Hotter was blinded by the light and lost his footing, falling off the stage with a crash. As he was covered in armour, he hit ground like a bomb on a corrugated-iron factory. That, however, is not how the opera is supposed to end. Hotter did not want to suggest to the audience that he had jumped off the mountain in remorse after stripping his favourite daughter of her status as goddess and putting her to sleep. So, as the music continued, Hotter gallantly climbed back on stage, reassuring the audience that he was still alive and well and the music continued to the last chord. At an earlier Walküre performance in 1956, also at Covent Garden, Hotter remembers a harmless but cheerful mishap. A bit late for his entrance in act III, he rushed backstage and swung an enormous cloak over his shoulders, entering the stage with his angry, impetuous "Wo ist Brünnhild?". His appearance, however, gave rise to merriment in the audience, a situation he would only understand at the end of the opera. He successfully sang for more than an hour before he realized that towering above his shoulders, invisible to him, was the coat-hanger on which the cloak had been hanging, a fluffy, pink coat-hanger. As Ernest Newman noted in his review, he was surely "the only man in the world who can actually step on stage and persuade you that he is God."Vickers, Great Operatic Disasters, p. 54


References


External links


Bach-Cantatas.com biographyDiscography
(Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings) * *Audio samples - ''
Der fliegende Holländer ' (''The Flying Dutchman''), WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. The central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden in 1843. Wagner claim ...
'' (Daland:
Kurt Böhme Kurt Böhme (5 May 1908 – 20 December 1989) was a German bass. He was born in Dresden, Germany, where he studied with Adolf Kluge at the Dresden Conservatory. He made his debut in 1930 in Bautzen in Der Freischütz, singing both Kaspar (a sign ...
, Senta: Helene Werth, Erik:
Bernd Aldenhoff Bernd Aldenhoff (14 June 1908, in Duisburg – 8 October 1959, in München) was a German Heldentenor. Career He was born in 1908 in Duisburg, and raised in an orphanage in the Rhineland. Despite his humble beginnings, he managed to secure an e ...
, Mary: Res Fischer, Steuermann:
Helmut Krebs Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). Helmut may refer ...
, Holländer: Hans Hotter - Chor und Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks -
Wilhelm Schüchter Wilhelm Schüchter (15 December 1911 – 27 May 1974) was a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor in Dortmund and left a legacy of opera recordings. Career Born in Bonn, Schüchter studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, co ...
- Hamburg 1951) *

Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer - 1. act

Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer - 2. act *

Richard Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer - 3. act * On video (YouTube) singing Schumann

* On video (YouTube) performing Schoenberg, at age 85

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotter, Hans 1909 births 2003 deaths German bass-baritones Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Operatic bass-baritones People from Offenbach am Main 20th-century German male opera singers