Guest
Rudolf Ritter (1878-1966) was a leading Austrian tenor whose two-decade career encompassed everything from comic opera to the heroic roles of Wagner. Born in Brüx (now part of the Czech Republic), Ritter began his career as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian military. After a decade in uniform, Ritter…at the age of 30…had a change of heart. An enthusiastic amateur singer, he made the decision to begin vocal studies in preparation for a career on the stage. Ritter began working at the Vienna Conservatory, where he spent two years studying voice and stagecraft. After completing his studies, the 32-year-old tenor made his debut with the Vienna Volksoper, in the title role of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Interestingly, Ritter was pigeonholed as an operetta tenor during his three-year association with the Volksoper (1910-1913) appearing in such works as Orphée aux Enfers, La Belle Hélène, The Mikado (all in German, of course) and the world premieres of Zemlinsky’s Kleider Machen Leute and Kienzl’s Die Kuhriegen. During this period of his career, Ritter divided his time between Vienna and Munich, developing a reputation as a light opera specialist. In spite of his success in operetta, Ritter had his sights set on something else. He wanted to be a Heldentenor. After three years of comic opera, Ritter finally got his chance to sink his teeth into something more substantial. In 1912, he left the Volksoper to accept an offer from the Stuttgart Hoftheater to sing Don José in Carmen and the title role in Wagner’s Lohengrin. His success in this new repertoire was immediate and other offers began to come his way. Later that same year, he was contracted to appear with the Würtemberg Hofoper, which was to become his artistic home for the next 20 years. In addition to his association with Würtemberg Hofoper, Ritter made guest appearances at both the Munich Hofoper and the Munich Opera Festival, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Opéra de Paris, Zurich’s Stadttheater, the Waldoper in Sopot, Poland and Bayreuth. In the Americas, Ritter appeared at the Teatro Colón and with Johanna Gadski’s German Opera Company, which toured the U.S. during the 1920s. Ritter’s repertoire was not terribly wide ranging. Apart from the aforementioned operetta roles (which were jettisoned from his repertoire after 1913), the tenor didn’t stray terribly far from the Wagnerian realm. All of the great roles were there…Lohengrin, Siegfried, Rienzi, Siegmund (both of them), Parsifal, Tannhäuser, Walther von Stolzing, Tristan…as well as a handful of non-Wagner parts, including Max in Der Freischütz and the Duke in Rigoletto. Ritter also sang in the world premieres of Braunfels’ Ulenspiegel, Zemlinsky’s Eine Florentinische Tragödie and Pfitzner’s Palestrina. He retired from the stage in 1933 at the age of 55 and became a much sought after voice teacher in Stuttgart. On June 3, 1966, Ritter succumbed to injuries suffered in an accident. He was 88. Ritter was relatively busy in the studio during the 1920s, recording for Vox, Odeon and . His discs reveal a voice of impressive heft, range and flexibility with a ringing top.
