Rudolf Hofbauer AUTOGRAPH

as Scarpia "Tosca" Puccini

Rudolf Hofbauer
1873-
German Baritone

Went to Vienna for a short training, where he joined the Deutsche Volkstheater in 1894 as a chorister and sang minor roles, His voice was discovered, he was engaged in 1902 as an operetta singer at the Vienna Theater and in 1902 participated in the world premiere of Lehár's operetta "The Ratselbinder". He also sang there in the world premiere of the operetta "The Violet Girl" by Hellmesberger. For the season 1905-06 he moved to the Theater an der Wien and was then committed in 1906 to the Vienna Volksoper, where he now appeared primarily as an opera singer. In 1907 he sang the Scarpia in the Viennese premiere of Puccini's "Tosca" and performed in roles such as the Count in "Figaro's Wedding", Johannes in "Evangelimann" by Kienzl, Lescaut in "Manon" by Massenet and de Siriex in "Fedora" by Giordano. In 1906 he was engaged to the Komische Oper Berlin, where he worked as Escamillo in "Carmen" and in the four demonic parts in " Hoffmann's stories . In the latter parts he made his debut in 1910 at the Vienna Court Opera, to which he belonged until 1916. Here he sang, , Golo in the premiere of Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande" (1911), Faninal in the "Rosenkavalier" and the Pizarro in "Fidelio" a. In 1913 he took over at the Vienna Volksoper in the Austrian premiere of Puccini's "Girls from the Golden West" ("La Fanciulla del West") the role of Jack Rance. 1918-23 he was a member of the German Opera House Berlin, where to his roles the Gunther in the "Twilight of the Gods", In 1923 he took part in the tour of German Opera through North America.