Viktor Schmitt

Viktor Schmitt was a German character tenor and a Vienna Court Opera ensemble member for the last twenty-five years of his life. A grandson of the Frankfurt singer and actress Maria Theresia Schmitt-Klemm, he studied there with Louis Baumann and made his debut at Freiburg im Breisgau in 1865, working through Dessau, Lübeck, Mainz, Bremen, Hamburg and Breslau. Vienna engaged him in August 1875, and nine weeks later he created Le Remendado in the house's Carmen, a part he went on to sing 198 times. He was also the company's first Mime, and stayed in the ensemble until his death.