Leonhard Labatt

Leonhard Labatt was a Swedish heldentenor who spent fourteen years as a principal at the Vienna Court Opera. Trained at Sweden's conservatory, he sang two unremarkable seasons at the Dresden court theatre before Vienna engaged him from October 1869, where he created the title role in the house's 1875 Tannhäuser, its first Rienzi in 1871 and its first Siegmund in 1877; Wagner himself considered him for Siegfried at the first Bayreuth Ring in 1876. He gave his last Vienna performance in May 1883, then sang in Rotterdam and Bremen before returning to Sweden in 1889 to teach voice.