Anton Mitterwurzer

A baritone of the Dresden court theatre for thirty-one years, and one of the first singers to make Wagner's baritone parts his own. Taught in Vienna by his uncle, the composer Johann Gänsbacher, then at the conservatory there and by Johann Aloys Miksch in Dresden, he made his debut at Innsbruck in 1836 and joined the Dresden company in 1839. He created Wolfram in 1845 and sang the first Kurwenal at Munich twenty years later, and was admired as Telramund, Hans Sachs and the Dutchman. His son Friedrich became a Burgtheater actor remembered as a pioneer of natural acting.