Karl Bucha

Karl Bucha, born Karl Friedrich Bauch, was a German bass who sang in his hometown church choir from the age of nine and made his stage debut at the Mannheim court theatre in 1888 as Morales in Carmen. He sang at Weimar, Hamburg and Düsseldorf before returning to Weimar from 1899 to 1910, appeared at Bayreuth on Richard Strauss's own recommendation, and created the Old Duke in the world premiere of Strauss's Guntram there in 1894. He sang at the Metropolitan Opera in 1895, directed opera at Erfurt in 1911-12 and 1916-18, and ran an opera school in Weimar from 1920, still active there as late as 1939.