Karl Beck (tenor)

Karl Beck (1814 – 4 March 1879) was an Austrian operatic tenor who is notable for creating the title role in Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin in Weimar, Germany in 1850. He also sang the title role in Hector Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini in its first performance outside France, also in Weimar, in 1852. Both performances were marred by a deterioration in his vocal powers probably caused by a lingering infection. He ended his career as master baker to the Imperial Court in Vienna.

Karl Beck was born in Vienna in 1814. Before coming to the stage he was a confectioner or pastry cook.

He studied with Josef Staudigl and made his debut as a tenor in Prague in 1838. He remained there until 1841, when he broke his contract to join the opera company of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg. There he had considerable success and was even dubbed by the locals "The King of Tenors". At some point his singing was adversely affected by a throat infection, possibly contracted while ice skating on the Neva, and he left Saint Petersburg in 1844. In 1848 he re-emerged at the Hoftheater in Weimar, Germany. At that time he was unknown in Germany despite his international experience.

Beck was selected to create the title role in Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin in 1850, a production directed by Franz Liszt. Wagner had written the Act III tenor monologue In fernem land (the "Grail Narration") in two parts, however, he asked Liszt to cut the second part from the premiere performance, as he felt Beck could not do it justice and it would result in an anticlimax. That unfortunate circumstance established the tradition of performing only the first part of the Narration. In fact, the first time the second part was ever sung at the Bayreuth Festival was by Franz Völker during the lavish 1936 production, which Adolf Hitler personally ordered and took a close interest in, to demonstrate what a connoisseur of Wagner he was.

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