Hugo Meyer-Welfing Meyer-Welfing was born on March 25th, 1905, in Hannover. Determined to study voice without any financial support from his family, he sang in Hamburg nightclubs to make some money. Among his teachers was Karl Erb. Meyer-Welfing made his debut in 1928 in Osnabrück, moved on to Aachen (in 1935) and Königsberg/Kaliningrad. From 1938, he was a member of the Vienna Volksoper, from 1945 of the Vienna Staatsoper, where he sang until 1965 (the last years comprimario parts only). From 1956, he taught voice at the Vienna conservatory. He died November 2nd, 1969, in Vienna. Early and late in his career, he sang a lot of operetta. His best years by far were those at the Volksoper. Don't be misled by his late (and easier to find) operetta recordings, which are much less than great: in his prime, he was a first-rate opera singer, faintly reminding of Wittrisch. He sang a lot of Mozart (Don Ottavio, Tamino, Belmonte), very frequently Hoffmann, his favorite role (at the Vienna Staatsoper alone 54 times from 1945 to 1954, but he had already started to sing it in Aachen), Turiddu, Lyonel, Lorenzo in Fra Diavolo, Jeník, Steuermann, Duca, Alfredo, Riccardo, Calaf, Sou-Chong, ...
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