Unquestionably the greatest Wagnerian bass-baritone of his time, he sang regularly at Bayreuth, Berlin, Covent Garden, Prague and the Metropolitan Opera. He also sang Pizarro (the evil governor of the prison in BeethovenΓÇÖs opera, Fidelio), Borromeo (the questionable Cardinal in PfitznerΓÇÖs Palestrina) and some of the dramatic parts in Richard StraussΓÇÖs operas.
He had a smooth, noble and resonant voice allied to great clarity of diction. He never resorted to the Bayreuth ΓÇÿbarkΓÇÖ which has afflicted some of his Wagnerian colleagues over the years.
A truly international artist, he was born in Nagyvarad, Hungary, in 1888, studied in Vienna under Adolph Robinson, and died in Farrington, Connecticut in 1953.
