25 Facts About Richard Tauber

Richard Tauber was an Austrian lyric tenor and film actor.

Richard Tauber performed the tenor role in numerous operas, including Don Giovanni by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Richard Tauber was born in Linz, Austria, to Elisabeth Seifferth, a widow and actress who performed soubrette roles at the local theater, and Richard Anton Tauber, an actor.

Richard Tauber's parents were not married, and his father was reportedly unaware of his birth as he was touring North America at the time.

Richard Tauber's father, who was born Jewish, but had converted to Roman Catholicism, hoped his son would become a priest.

Richard Tauber's father enrolled him at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt to study piano, composition, and conducting.

Richard Tauber made rapid progress in his studies but remained determined to pursue a career as a singer.

The Count encouraged Richard Tauber to take small roles with other companies to broaden his experience.

Richard Tauber mastered Gounod's Faust in 48 hours and learned Bacchus in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos overnight, astonishing Strauss, who conducted the performance in Berlin.

Richard Tauber sang tenor roles in numerous operas, including Don Giovanni, The Bartered Bride, Tosca, Mignon, Faust, Carmen, and Die Fledermaus.

Richard Tauber appeared in modern works such as Erich Korngold's Die tote Stadt and Wilhelm Kienzl's Der Evangelimann.

In June 1919, Richard Tauber made the first of more than seven hundred gramophone records.

Richard Tauber first performed in an operetta by Franz Lehar at the Volksbuhne in Berlin in 1920.

Richard Tauber appeared in several films, both in Germany and later in England.

Richard Tauber soon divorced her Italian husband and married Tauber on 18 March 1926.

In 1929, Richard Tauber met Mary Losseff at Rudolf Nelson's review in Berlin, and they lived together for about five years.

In 1931, Richard Tauber made his London debut in operetta, and London performances became a regular part of his schedule.

In 1933, Richard Tauber was attacked in the street by a group of Nazi Brownshirts due to his Jewish ancestry.

In 1938, Richard Tauber made his London operatic debut in Die Zauberflote under Sir Thomas Beecham.

Richard Tauber was touring South Africa when World War II broke out and returned to Switzerland until receiving the papers allowing him to enter the UK in March 1940.

Richard Tauber even composed English operettas with lyricist Fred S Tysh.

In 1946, Richard Tauber appeared in a Broadway adaptation of The Land of Smiles, which flopped, leaving him with huge personal losses and in debt to the backers.

Richard Tauber was thus forced to tour the United States, Canada, Central, and South America for six months to recoup the losses, with Arpad Sandor and George Schick serving as his accompanists, and Neil Chotem as an assisting artist.

Richard Tauber was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer: one lung was already useless, and the other nearly so.

Three days after his last performance, Richard Tauber entered Guy's Hospital on October 1,1947, to have his left lung removed to treat the cancer.