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Part III: Rare and unknown voices. Please open the bar to read more!

Josef Metternich, Baritone (1915-2005)

Engelbert Humperdinck - HANSEL UND GRETEL
Witch Narration (Eine Hex´, steinalt...)
With Maria von Ilosvay, Contralto (1917-1987)
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan
(Recorded 1953)

My personal opinion: "He wasn´t a subtle singer!" - I read this line yesterday in a review about the german baritone Josef Metternich, and immediately I thought: "Is it absolute necessary to be a subtle singer?" Fischer-Dieskau always was subtle, and therefore sometimes hardly tolerable. It may be, that Metternich´s singing was very energetic, but it was also very suggestive. Nobody who heard him once with Dapertutto's "Scintille, diamant!" (Originally written by Offenbach for his operetta LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE and not for LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN) will ever forget the demonic expression. In Karajan's 1953 recording of HANSEL AND GRETEL, Josef Metternich sang a truly scary witch narration. (When I was a child, it scared me). A critic wrote, it was a wise decision of Walter Legge to give him the part of the rustic broom-maker. Indeed, Metternich´s voice had a rough timbre, the singing was empathic in an unaffected way (Malte-Fischer called it "an inexorable energy"). Metternich was predestinated to perform Holländer, Alfio, Iago and Pizarro - roles with dark undertones. His baritone voice was strong and grainy with almost tenoral height. It was often said, that Josef Metternich had an 'italian' voice, and it was also said, Mario del Monaco gave his pupils an advice: "If you want to learn the italian method of singing, don´t search in Italy, just travel to Germany and to Josef Metternich!"
The career of this remarkable singer began after the war, when he became the first baritone of the Berlin Opera. Director was the famous Michael Bohnen ("Anyhow, he was crazy about my voice"), and he gave Metternich the opportunity to sing what he wanted to sing. Someday, Leo Blech told him, Rudolf Bing was in the audience. The result was a contract for New York, and Metternich gave his Metropolitan debut as Don Carlo di Vargas in 1953 (In Bing's memoirs there is no reference, but a 1955 live recording of BALLO with Milanov and Tucker survived). Nevertheless, the german baritone made big impression in New York. Kenneth Furie wrote, Metternich "is the outstanding interpret of the Dutchman today" and for Kesting he was best as a Wagner-singer ("A persuasive Telramund", recorded 1953 with Schock, Maud Cunitz and Margarete Klose under Wilhelm Schüchter). I have to admit, I´m not a devoted fan to the music of Richard Strauss, but in Rudolf Moralt's SALOME, Josef Metternich is a strong and proud John the baptist (probably alongside Hotter the best of all) - always worth to hear (and Walburga Wegner is a most underrated Salome). In the centre of his discography we can find many collaborations with the german tenor Rudolf Schock (1915-1986), who often called Metternich "A good old friend of mine, a real buddy". In 1952 they recorded a german FORZA DEL DESTINO with surprising "italianita", one year later a german TOSCA followed with the same cast (Metternich, Schock, Martinis) - nice, but nothing special. All in all, he surely was not that kind of an omnipresent singer who featured international format. But alongside Fischer-Dieskau, Josef Metternich belongs to the most important german baritones after the war. Apparently some critics thought the same. On an old record sleeve, an unknown reviewer called him "An indispensable artist!". Indispensable, even if he wasn´t a subtle singer...?
Josef Metternich retired in 1971 after performing for more than three decades. He became a successful voice-teacher in Cologne (I remember, I saw him there several times in the old Dagobert-street), and some of his pupils are Jonas Kaufmann, Matthias Hölle and Eike Wilm-Schulte. He was married to 1917 born Liselotte Losch (A splendid soprano in Mozart-roles and in many operetta-recordings of the 1950s under Franz Marszalek). They lived at the Lake Starnberg near to Munich. Metternich died there in 2005. Here, in this spooky scene from Humperdinck´s fairytale-opera HANSEL AND GRETEL, the broom-maker blames his wife for sending their children out into the deep dark forest. And he tells the story of the abominable old witch, a cannibalistic monster: "The devil himself gave her all the mighty power!".