Hans Hotter, The Hottest Bass On The Block... And He Wasn’t Even A Fish!

This very hot review is submitted in anticipation of His Actinopteric Excellency the King of All Fish’s Let’s Go Database Diving Write-Off.... The key word was... well, you can guess, can’t you?

This 263 pages (plus index) hard-back book is an autobiography of the great German bass-baritone opera singer Hans Hotter (1909 - 2003), translated and edited from original German (titled ’Der Mai war mir gewogen’) by the author Donald Arthur. It covers his personal and professional life from his birth in 1909 in Bavarian town of Offenbach am Main in Germany and covers all aspects of his career as a singer, stage director, and teacher in first person narration.

Unlike the famous high-voice tenors who play either the dashing hero or the whiny wimp in a opera and are known for their high-strung-ness off the stage, the great bassos excel in character-driven roles and enjoy more ...er... normal.. reputation off the stage. One of the greatest low-voiced singer of the last century was the Bavarian (from Southern Germany) basso Hans Hotter. Not only did Herr Hotter possess one of the most commanding bass-baritone voices around, he was also a most compelling actor on stage. He started young (having his professional debut as a 21 yrs old in Troppau (now Oppava in the Czech Republic)), and went on to have a long and very successful career. He was known for his portrayal of Wotan the one-eyed supreme god in Wagner’s Ring Cycle opera (that’s Wotan, by the way... not wonton. Ahem), as Jago in Verdi’s Otello, and as King Phillip in Verdi’s Don Carlo.

This is a very chatty memoir that relates Herr Hotter’s fascinating life to the reader as if we are his trusted friends. He led a fascinating life as a young Bavarian from a modest working class family who abandoned his organ-playing study and the ambition to become a conductor for singing only reluctantly (lucky us his mentors were shrew enough to steer him that way, Hotter would become one of the best bass-baritone of the 20th Century). He bounced around a few theaters before landing at his hometown's Bavarian State Opera in Munich, learning his crafts... both in professional singing and in prank-joking (and apparently was very good at both).

Hotter stayed in Nazi Germany because he was afraid of how his family would suffer the consequence of his leaving for the more peaceful pasture of the USA. Hitler required his audience during a public function, and yet he still managed to avoid joining the Nazi party and have a big career during the WW II years. He sang both privately and publicly for the revered German composers Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss (beside playing a few games of Skat with the latter), worked with many legendary singers and conductors on the world’s biggest stages, the whole nine yard!

Evidently the years of WW II and the stigma attached to any German singers who stayed and thrived in their homeland during those years stuck in his psych over the years since he gets that topic out of the way first before restarting the memoir in chronological order. The Nazi didn’t bother him much, and so he was skeptical about accounts by other German artists who claimed they were pressured to join the Nazi Party. I am surprised that he didn’t take into account that he was already famous enough an opera star in the years leading to the out-break of the war that Hitler wanted to meet him. That surely would have caused the brown coats some pause before thinking of mistreating him. Those artists who weren’t as famous by that time had less leverage, I think.

Naturally there are many fascinating anecdotes on those experiences and great insights and tips for all those interested in how opera stars go about their business. All told in such an unpretentious and easy to follow manner (not to mention a sharp-witted sense of humor). One doesn’t need to be already familiar with opera or musical terms to enjoy this memoir. It should be required reading for any opera-singer wannabe. I also love the way he takes pain to remember all the people who had influenced him along the way. People like Clemens Krauss, Joseph Kleiberth, Bruno Walter, George Szell, Birgit Nilsson, or Astrid Varnay are already well known, but Hotter pays handsome tribute to those who aren’t as well known whom he considered significant to his development as an artist and as a person as well. People like Paul Eger or Matthaus Roemmer, among others, will live on in Hotter’s remembrance. It is always clear when Hotter is narrating an event objectively, and when he is opining his own thoughts. I find his Germanly frank ways as refreshing as a cold beer... or rather a cold orange soda (must confess that I actually don’t drink beer. A wimp, I am).

There are many black & white photos of Hotter and his friends and family interspersed through out the book, and a discography at the end. Hotter chose to not cover his family life in details, which is cool by me. His public life is already fascinating enough to read! If you are interested in the life of an opera singer or of a German who survived WW II in his home country and remembers all the good lessons to pass on to the next generations, this book is really a good one to pick up. Highly recommended!

Recommended: Yes