Emil Scaria by Luckhardt

Emil Scaria (1838-1886); Austrian bass who in 1882 created the role of Gurnemanz in the première of Wagner’s “Parsifal” at Bayreuth. In 1860 he made his debut at the Budapest Opera as St. Bris in Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots". He then sang in Brünn ( Brno), Frankfurt am Main and Magdeburg, but without much success. In 1862 he continued his vocal studies in London with Manuel Garcia Jr. This was followed by an engagement at the "Hoftheater von Dessau" (1862), the "Opernhaus von Leipzig" (1863/65) and the "Hofoper von Dresden" (1865/72). In the years 1873/86 he was a celebrated singer at the "Wiener Hofoper", where he turned out to be a great interpreter of Wagner. In 1882 he created the role of Gurnemanz in Wagner's "Parsifal" with Hermann Winkelmann as Parsifal and Amalie Materna as Kundry.
In 1882/83 he belonged to the Angelo Neumann Travelling Company that undertook a major tour through Europe. In London, Paris, St. Petersburg and in the major musical centres of Italy were given performances of Wagner operas and Beethoven's "Fidelio". His last performance was in 1886 as Landgrave in Wagner's "Tannhäuser at the Wiener Hofoper". The death of the singer turned out to be tragically. He fell increasingly into insanity and finally had to be placed in a facility for the mentally ill. He found his final resting place in Frankfurt am Main, the city where he had made many guest appearances.


On the photo he is seen as Sir John Falstaff in the opera "Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor" by Otto Nicolai.