Otto Goritz

Otto Goritz (1873 - April 13, 1929) was a German baritone with the Metropolitan Opera from 1903 to 1917. He then sang for the Hamburg State Opera.[1]

Goritz with an owl in 1916

Biography

Goritz was born in 1873 in Germany. He sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1903 to 1917. He performed in 25 roles at the Metropolitan, 24 of them in German and 1 in Italian.[2] After the USA entered World War I in 1917, the Metropolitan Opera suspended performances of works from the German repertory and Goritz was either fired or forced to resign from the Met after having been rumoured to have sung a parody celebrating the 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania at a New Year's Eve party hosted by Met soprano Johanna Gadski in 1916 (Gadski also was forced out of the Met around the same time due to the war and her German links).[3] Goritz returned to Germany, and sang with the Hamburg State Opera for a number of years before returning to New York in the late 1920s. He died on April 13, 1929 in Manhattan, New York City.[1]

Recordings

In the 1910s, Goritz made a number of recordings for Columbia Records, Edison Records, the Victor Talking Machine Company, and other companies. Some of them are available today on compact disc.[4]

References
  1. "Otto Goritz Dead. Once in Opera Here. Made Metropolitan Debut in 'Parsifal'.Recently With Hamburg Opera". New York Times. Associated Press. April 14, 1929. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
  2. Robert Tuggle, The Golden Age of Opera (1983), p. 115.
  3. Peter Conolly-Smith, Translating America: An Ethnic Press and Popular Culture, 1890-1920 (2015), Kindle edition (pages unnumbered).
  4. worldcat.org
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