Otto Edelmann

Otto Edelmann was an Austrian bass-baritone born in Brunn am Gebirge, near Vienna, on 5 February 1917. He trained in the Austrian capital with Lierhammer and Grüner Graarud, and his public debut took place in 1937 in Gera, as Mozart's Figaro. From 1938 to 1940 he was engaged at Nuremberg.

In 1947 he joined the Vienna State Opera, where he made his debut as the Hermit in Der Freischütz. His postwar career was associated above all with Hans Sachs. He sang the role at the first two Bayreuth Festivals after the war, in 1951 and 1952, and recorded it with Karajan in 1951. He also performed it at the 1952 Edinburgh Festival with the Hamburg State Opera, and at his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in 1954. In 1960 he sang Ochs at the first opera performance in the new Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg.

His repertoire also included Leporello, Rocco, Amfortas, King Henry in Lohengrin, Gurnemanz, Plunkett in Martha and Dulcamara. His most celebrated recordings are his Sachs and a light-hearted Ochs in Karajan's famous Rosenkavalier of 1956, as well as a Pizarro in Furtwängler's Fidelio of 1953.