Otakar Kraus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otakar Kraus (10 December 1909 — 28 July 1980) was a Czech (later British), operatic baritone and teacher.
He was born in Prague and studied there with Konrad Wallerstein and in Milan with Fernando Carpi. He himself was the teacher of a number of important British basses, including Robert Lloyd, Willard White, John Tomlinson and Gwynne Howell.
He made his operatic debut as Amonasro in Aida in Brno in 1935. From 1936 to 1939 he sang at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, from 1939 to 1941 at the Prague National Theatre, and from 1943 to 1945 with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. After a spell with the English Opera Group, he joined the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (where he had sung for the first time in 1941), in 1951, and sang there until 1968.
Kraus specialised in villainous characters. His roles at Covent Garden and worldwide included Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Iago in Otello and Scarpia in Tosca, as well as Alberich in the Ring cycle at the Bayreuth Festival from 1960 to 1962. He created the roles of Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Tarquinius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, King Fisher in Michael Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage and Diomede in Walton's Troilus and Cressida.
He died in London.
[edit] References
Warrack, John, and Ewan West (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869164-5.
