Endrik Wottrich

Wottrich studied violin and voice (with Ingeborg Hallstein) in Würzburg, then in New York City at the Juilliard School. He made his debut in 1992 in Wiesbaden as Cassio, where he also sang Matthias (Evangelimann) that season. 1993 to 1999 at the Berlin Staatsoper, then he continued his career as a freelancer, singing for instance Don Carlo in Bonn, Tannhäuser at La Scala, Florestan at Covent Garden, Siegmund in Dresden, Stolzing in Stuttgart, Erik in Tokyo and Parsifal in Oslo. Above all, he sang a lot in Bayreuth; his debut there took already place in 1996 (Young Seaman in Tristan), and until 2009, he appeared regularly at the festival: David, Froh, Stolzing, Erik, Parsifal, Siegmund.

Sharp-tongued, eloquent and slightly paranoid, he was never shy of picking a fight with journalists (who always gave him a raw deal in his opinion) or stage directors; his most spectacular fight was with German theater eccentric Christoph Schlingensief about the latter's 2004 Parsifal staging in Bayreuth, which Wottrich (who sang the title role) called "puerile crap", and the stage director an "utter Nazi" (Schlingensief was in fact the precise contrary of a Nazi), while insisting that "I use the word negro whenever I want to, and won't let that a clown like Mr. Schlingensief prohibit me from doing so". On the other hand, he was probably the only colleague who spoke openly (but very empathically and respectfully) about the psychological stress that caused Rolando Villazon's vocal problems.

I knew Wottrich from the radio, and thought he was absolutely a nightmare singer; but when hearing him on stage (at the Vienna Volksoper), I found him admittedly more acceptable than expected. In the wide space of a theater, a considerable part of the unpleasant traits of his voice (the vibrato, above all) died away to some extent.

Reference 1, reference 2 and picture source, reference 3, reference 4