Richard Mayr

Richard Mayr was an Austrian bass who first studied medicine in Vienna before Gustav Mahler persuaded him to train as a singer, making his stage debut at Bayreuth in 1902 as Hagen. Mahler engaged him for the Vienna Court Opera that year, where he sang for three decades in roles from Wotan and Sarastro to Leporello, and created Barak in the premiere of Die Frau ohne Schatten in 1919. Strauss and Hofmannsthal had wanted him for the original 1911 Dresden Rosenkavalier; he sang Ochs in the Vienna premiere a few months later and became its definitive interpreter, making his 1924 Covent Garden debut in the role under Bruno Walter. He was a mainstay of the Salzburg Festival from 1921 to 1934.