The son of incomparably more famous Heinrich Bötel, he
studied voice in Hamburg first, then with Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin. His debut took place in Aachen in 1905, in Audran's
Poupée.
The next four years were spent at the small Komische Oper Berlin, where he had considerable success as Hoffmann; then he went to
Vienna and sang operetta, first at the Theater an der Wien (where he sang a supporting role in the 1909 world premiere of
Lehár's Graf von Luxemburg), then at the Raimundtheater (until 1914). For the 1914/15 season, he was a member of
the theater in Halle an der Saale.
So far, he mostly sang main roles. In opera, other than Hoffmann, he was Almaviva, Jeník, Chapelou (which had been his
father's masterpiece), Wilhelm Meister, Duca or Belmonte; in operetta, Eisenstein, Paris or Danilo.
The remaining 20 years of his career, he was a buffo tenor at the Städtische Oper Berlin (with a 1928–31 interruption,
when he sang the Krolloper, again in Berlin). He was also popular on the Berlin radio. But the most important part of his career
was probably his prolific activity as a record tenor.
Reference: Kutsch & Riemens
