Schützendorf

Schützendorf, family of German musicians, all brothers:

(1) Guido Schützendorf, bass; b. Vught, near ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, April 22, 1880; d. in Germany, April 1967. He studied at the Cologne Cons. He sang with the German Opera Co., with which he toured the U.S. (1929–30); also sang under the name Schützendorf an der Mayr.

(2) Alfons Schützendorf, bass-baritone; b. Vught, May 25, 1882; d. Weimar, Aug. 1946. He studied in Cologne and with Borgatti in Milan. He sang at the Bayreuth Festivals (1910–12) and at London’s Covent Garden (1910); taught at the Essen Folkwangschule (1927–31) and in Berlin (from 1932). He was esteemed for such roles as Wotan, Klingsor, and Telramund.

(3) Gustav Schützendorf, baritone; b. Cologne, 1883; d. Berlin, April 27, 1937. He studied at the Cologne Cons. and in Milan. He made his operatic debut as Don Giovanni in Düsseldorf (1905); after singing in Berlin, Wiesbaden, and Basel, he was a member of the Bavarian Court Opera (later State Opera) in Munich (1914–20) and the Berlin State Opera (1920–22); made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Faninal on Nov. 17, 1922, and remained on its roster until 1935. He married Grete Stückgold in 1929.

(4) Leo Schützendorf, bass-baritone; b. Cologne, May 7, 1886; d. Berlin, Dec. 31, 1931. He studied with D’Arnals in Cologne. He made his operatic debut in Düsseldorf (1908); sang in Krefeld (1909–12), Darmstadt (1913–17), Wiesbaden (1917–19), and Vienna (1919–20) and at the Berlin State Opera (1920–29), where he created the role of Wozzeck (Dec. 14, 1925); among his other roles were Faninal, Beckmesser, and Boris Godunov.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire