Schützendorf, Leo

Opera singer (bass-baritone)

born: 05.05.1886 in Cologne

died: 18.12.1931 in Berlin

Schützendorf studied at the Cologne Conservatory and made his debut in Düsseldorf in 1908. After stints in Münster (1909-10), Krefeld (1910-12) and Darmstadt (1912-17), the bass-baritone was a member of the Wiesbaden Theater ensemble until he accepted a call to the Vienna State Opera in 1919 and the Berlin State Opera in 1920.

In this relatively short time, he became an audience favorite. The musicologist Alfred Einstein paid tribute to the singer, who died young, in the "Berliner Tageblatt" as follows: "He was a singer who was obsessed with the stage [...], a marvel in the precision of his Sprechgesang [...] overwhelming the power of the organ [...], everywhere he drew the most leathery fellow performers and the leathery audience to sympathy, to merriment, to jubilation". The Wiesbaden conductor Franz Mannstaedt attested him "a voice full of power and juice".

When he sang in Max Reinhardt's production of Millöcker's operetta "Der Bettelstudent" at the Metropoltheater without permission from the director of the Berlin State Opera, the State Opera terminated the singer's contract. He died shortly afterwards after an operetta performance, depressed and lonely.