Hans Hotter

Hans Hotter was born in Offenbach am Main in January 1909 and studied at the Munich Music Academy with Matthäus Roemer and Hans Knappertsbusch (whose pupil he became in conducting as well as singing). He made his début at the Troppau Opera in 1929 and held early appointments at Prague (1932–34), Hamburg (1934–37) and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (from 1937), where his Wagner and Strauss roles quickly established him as one of the leading German bass-baritones of his generation.

His central repertoire was the great Wagner bass-baritone roles — Wotan and the Wanderer in the *Ring* cycle, Hans Sachs in *Die Meistersinger*, Amfortas in *Parsifal*, the Dutchman in *Der fliegende Holländer*, and Kurwenal in *Tristan*. He sang at Bayreuth from 1952 to 1966 — the period of the Wieland Wagner productions — and was the dominant Wotan of the post-war recorded cycles, including the famous 1958–65 Solti *Ring* on Decca. He was also a notable Strauss baritone (Mandryka, Jochanaan, the Music Master in *Ariadne*) and the central interpreter of his generation of Schubert’s *Winterreise* in recital and recording. He directed productions of the *Ring* at Covent Garden in 1962–64.

Hotter taught at the Vienna Conservatory and gave masterclasses across Europe through his later years. He died in Munich in December 2003 at the age of ninety-four. Music Preserved’s archive includes a substantial range of his Wagner and Strauss work in concert and studio performance.