Karl Aagaard Østvig

Karl Aagaard Østvig was a Norwegian tenor who studied in Cologne and made his stage debut at Stuttgart in 1914, singing the Lay Brother and Giovanni in the first performance of Max von Schillings's Mona Lisa the following year. He joined the Vienna State Opera in 1919, creating the Emperor in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten that year, and moved to the Berlin City Opera in 1927. A stylish singer, he brought a lyrical approach even to heavier roles such as Bacchus and Parsifal, and withdrew from the stage in 1933 to direct and teach in Oslo. He joined Norway's Nasjonal Samling party in 1940 and ran the Oslo opera house under German occupation; he served two years in prison after the war for his membership.