Richard Tauber

Widely recognised as one of the greatest ever tenors, Austrian Richard Tauber made his name in the early 20th century, mastering a series of roles in Mozart's operas, notably 'The Magic Flute'. He was born in humble circumstances in Linz, Austria in 1891, the illegitimate son of an actor and a singer and had an unsettled upbringing on the road with his mother, Elisabeth Seiffert, and then going to live with his father, also called Richard Tauber. Idolising Richard Wagner, he was trained in singing by Professor Carl Beines, who persuaded him his voice was more suited to Mozart and he became a Mozart specialist thereafter. He made his operatic debut as Tamino in Mozart's 'The Magic Flute' in 1913 and won a five-year contract with Dresden Opera as a result, later moving to Vienna and Berlin Opera, where his roles included most of the great operas - 'Don Giovanni', 'Tosca', 'Mignon', 'Faust' and 'Carmen'. Controversially, his roles later encompassed light operettas by Franz Lehar, who started writing specifically for Tauber and achieved great success and broadened his style and appeal. Part-Jewish, the rise of Nazism in the 1930s led to him emigrating to London, where he starred in film musicals, portraying composer Franz Schubert in 'April Blossoms'. He also became popular in the US and gave concerts, conducted orchestras and wrote operettas. The most notable of these was 'Old Chelsea', which produced his signature song 'My Heart and I'. Despite suffering from lung cancer he continued to perform, making his last performance as Don Ottavio in Mozart's 'Don Giovanni' at London's Covent Garden and Camden Theatre, passing away just five days later, aged 57.

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