Wachtel, Theodor

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Wachtel, Theodor

Wachtel, Theodor, famous German tenor; b. Hamburg, March 10, 1823; d. Frankfurt am Main, Nov. 14,1893. The son of a livery-stable keeper, he carried on the business from the age of 17, after his father’s death. When his voice was discovered, he was sent to Hamburg for study, and soon appeared in opera. He made his operatic debut in Hamburg (March 12, 1849); made his debut at London’s Covent Garden as Edgardo (June 7, 1862), and sang at the Berlin Royal Opera (1862-79); he also toured the U.S. (1871-72; 1875-76). His voice was a powerful and brilliant lyric tenor; the role in which he made himself famous was that of the postilion in Adam’s Le Postillon de Longjumeau,which he sang more than 1,000 times; he also was successful as Man-rico, John of Leyden, and Pollione.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire