Otto Edelmann

An artist of consistently high standards, Otto Edelmann sang the important bass and bass-baritone roles in the Wagner, Strauss, and Mozart repertories during the 1950s and 1960s. If he lacked the truly handsome tone quality of predecessors such as Schorr, Bocklemann, and Nissen, he nonetheless offered a voice that was cleanly formed and devoid of woolliness. Although he had already made a positive impression in Vienna from 1947 onward, the engagement that focused the spotlight on his art came in the 1951 reopening of the Bayreuth Festival when he sang the bass part in Beethove...