Georg Maikl

His father was a well-known Tyrolean yodeler, and he, too, sang in a yodeling group. He was discovered in Prague by the famous Hamburg impresario Bernhard Pollini, who provided for his vocal studies in Stuttgart, but died before Maikl was ready and could come and sing in Hamburg.

So he made his debut in Mannheim (1899, Tamino), where he had great success until 1904: that year, Gustav Mahler hired him for the Vienna Hofoper (the later Staatsoper). At that theater, he spent the long rest of his career – his last performance was in April 1950! He sang 2719 performances in Vienna: a career that defies any distinction between lead and comprimario singers. Maikl sang everything from the First Knight in Parsifal to Turiddu, Manrico, Erik and even Max, Grigorij or Dick Johnson, but with a clear predominance of the lyrical repertory: Ottavio, Belmonte, Nureddin (Der Barbier von Bagdad), the Italian Singer (197 times from 1911 to 1941), Wilhelm Meister, Pinkerton, Jean (Le jongleur de Notre-Dame), Gérald, Alfredo, Léopold (La Juive), Tamino (94 times from 1905 to 1933), Ferrando, David, Alfred (Fledermaus). In Fidelio, he sang all three tenor parts: Florestan (22 times from 1906 to 1941), Jacquino (78 times from 1904 to 1929) and the First Prisoner (19 times from 1932 to 1940).

He made a whole lot of records, unfortunately all scarce.

Reference: archives of the Vienna Staatsoper, Kutsch & Riemens

Many thanks to Anton Bieber for the recordings and label scans (Don Giovanni, Barbiere di Siviglia, Barbier von Bagdad).