Appels grew up in a middle class family and worked as a dental technician for many years.
When he discovered that he had the means to become a singer, he moved to Berlin to study voice. Before starting his career as
a singer, he played the Swedish king Charles XII in the 1920 movie Der galante König: August der Starke.
Appels made his operatic debut during the 1920/21 season at the Stadttheater in Freiburg im Breisgau. (He was 34. Nowadays he would not even start. In Germany the maximum age to be
hired in a choir is 32.)
His career developed as follows:
1921/22 at the Vereinigte Theater in Barmen-Elberfeld
1922/23 at the Stadttheater in Chemnitz
1923–25 at the Volksoper Berlin
1925–28 at the Nationaltheater (State Opera) in Munich
1928/29 at the Opernhaus in Graz
1930–34 at the Stadttheater in Kiel
1934–38 at the Stadttheater in Dortmund
1938–40 at the Landestheater in Neustrelitz
He made guest appearances at/in:
Vienna Staatsoper: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1923, Tannhäuser in 1926, Ariadne auf Naxos in 1928, just one
performance each
1920 Stadttheater in Basel
1922 Amsterdam: Tannhäuser from 3 October, sharing with Arensen, and with Wolf, Pogani, Morrisson and Lindhorst
1922 's-Gravenhage: Carmen from 22 October, sharing with Arensen, and with Clewing, Drost, Montelauri
1922 Rotterdam: Pagliacci from 9 December, sharing with Morrisson, and with Schulze, Bonini
1923 Rotterdam: Lohengrin from 3 January, sharing with Güther and Kirchner; Die Walküre from 24 February
1924 's-Gravenhage: Lohengrin from 30 October, sharing with Urlus; Tannhäuser from 18 December, sharing with Moes
1924 Opernhaus in Köln
1939 's-Gravenhage (probably wrong)
After retiring in 1944, he taught singing in Berlin.
He recorded for Vox, Tri-Ergon und Brilliant.
His repertory comprised 32 roles: Florestan, Éléazar, Don José, Gounod's Faust, Max,
Tamino, Canio, Pinkerton, Riccardo, Gabriele Adorno, Manrico, Radames, Pedro, Aurelius (Die toten Augen by d'Albert),
Gottwald (Hanneles Himmelfahrt by Graener), Mathias (Evangelimann), Charles (Die Lästerschule by
Paul von Klenau), August der Starke (Der Freikorporal by Georg Vollerthun), Hans Kraft (Der Bärenhäuter
by Siegfried Wagner), Bacchus, Herodes, Elemer, Grigorij – and above all Richard Wagner: Erik, Lohengrin, Stolzing,
Tannhäuser, Froh, Siegmund, both Siegfrieds and Parsifal.
Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens
Reference 2
