Hans Hotter

Hans Hotter (19 January 1909 – 6 December 2003) was a German bass-baritone known for his towering 6-foot-4-inch frame and unmistakable voice and diction. Born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, he studied under Matthäus Roemer in Munich and began his career as an organist and choirmaster before his operatic debut in Opava in 1930. During the Nazi era, he performed in Germany and Austria while resisting pressure to join the Nazi Party, and he appeared abroad occasionally, such as in Amsterdam under Bruno Walter, who advised him that staying in Germany was his only option if he could not leave his family.

Hotter’s international career only took off after his Covent Garden debut in 1947, leading to performances at major European opera houses. He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1950 as the title role in *Der fliegende Holländer*, singing 35 times in 13 roles—mostly Wagnerian—over four seasons. His most celebrated achievement was his portrayal of Wotan in *Der Ring des Nibelungen*, from the *Rheingold* Wotan to the *Siegfried* Wanderer, which he first sang in his early twenties in German provincial theatres, adding *Die Walküre* shortly after in Prague. He performed these roles into the mid-1960s, despite a voice crisis from severe asthma that caused him to miss the 1951 Bayreuth Festival; he returned to Bayreuth from 1952 onward. His Wotan was first recorded in a 1930s studio version of *Die Walküre* Act II, and later in Decca’s famous 1960s Ring cycle under Georg Solti and John Culshaw. Live Bayreuth recordings from the mid-1950s with conductors Clemens Krauss, Joseph Keilberth, and Hans Knappertsbusch also captured his Wotan. He directed a complete Ring at Covent Garden from 1961 to 1964. His Amfortas and Gurnemanz in *Parsifal* were preserved in several of Knappertsbusch’s live Bayreuth recordings.

Though admired as Hans Sachs in *Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg*, Hotter later preferred the smaller, lower-pitched role of Pogner due to its better fit for his voice and a chronic back injury. Similarly, he started as the baritone Amfortas in *Parsifal*, later switched to the bass Gurnemanz, and eventually to the even lower Titurel. He was also celebrated for his Pizarro in Beethoven’s *Fidelio*, with a live 1960s Covent Garden recording released in 2005. Hotter had a close working relationship with Richard Strauss, performing in premieres of Strauss’s late operas: the commandant in *Friedenstag* (1938), Olivier in *Capriccio* (1942), and Jupiter in a private dress rehearsal of *Die Liebe der Danae* (1944). After the war, he sang Sir Morosus in *Die Schweigsame Frau* with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Böhm. Strauss dedicated his song “Erschaffen und beleben” to Hotter, who recorded many Strauss lieder. Hotter’s daughter Gabriele married Strauss’s grandson Richard in 1962.

While internationally known for German repertoire, in Germany and Austria he also performed Verdi in translation, notably as Falstaff and the Grand Inquisitor in *Don Carlos*—a role he sang in Italian at the Met and elsewhere. He performed and recorded non-German roles in German, including Count Almaviva (Mozart), Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), and Don Basilio (Rossini). As a lieder singer, he left recordings of Schubert’s *Winterreise*, *Schwanengesang*, and other songs, as well as sacred music like Bach cantatas and a recording of Haydn’s *Die Schöpfung* where he sang both the bass Archangel Raphael and the high baritone Adam. A passionate anti-Nazi, Hotter mocked Hitler at parties and refused to perform at the Bayreuth Festival during the Third Reich due to its association with Hitler. According to *The Times* obituary, Hitler kept Hotter’s records in his private collection; when questioned at a denazification hearing, Hotter quipped that the Pope also had some. He never fully retired, making his final public appearance in his nineties after playing character roles like Schigolch in Berg’s *Lulu* and narrating Schoenberg’s *Gurre-Lieder* into his eighties.

One notable mishap occurred during a 1961 Covent Garden *Walküre* performance: after striking Brünnhilde’s rock to summon Loge’s fire, Hotter was blinded by the light, lost his footing, and fell off the stage with a crash, landing in his armour like a bomb on a corrugated-iron factory. Rather than let the audience think he had jumped in remorse, he climbed back on stage as the music continued, reassuring everyone he was fine and finishing the scene.