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Anton van Rooy (1 January 1870 – 28 November 1932) was a Dutchbass-baritone. He had a voice of enormous proportions and is most remembered for his association with the music dramas ofRichard Wagner, especially theRing Cycle,The Mastersingers of Nuremberg andParsifal.
Born inRotterdam, van Rooy studied with the famous voice teacherJulius Stockhausen inFrankfurt. He made his operatic debut at theBayreuth Festival in 1897, singing Wotan inDer Ring des Nibelungen. The year 1898 saw his debuts inBerlin and at theRoyal Opera House inLondon; and on 14 December that same year he sang for the first time at theMetropolitan Opera,New York City, asWotan inDie Walküre.
He remained with the Met until 1908, during which time he was heard in all the leading baritone Wagnerian roles. Most notably, he createdAmfortas in the Americanpremiere ofParsifal in 1903. Four years later, he created the part of John the Baptist in the initial New York production ofRichard Strauss's then controversial operaSalome.
Van Rooy also continued to sing regularly at Bayreuth until 1903, when he was banned byCosima Wagner from any further performances at the festival, because the Met performances ofParsifal that he had participated in breached German copyright law. His appearances in London spanned the years 1898-1913. He madegramophone discs andcylinder recordings, too, and was a noted song recitalist and soloist inoratorio.
Although the acoustically recorded discs and cylinders that van Rooy cut during the early 1900s were incapable of capturing the full majesty of his voice, they do demonstrate the strength of his high notes, the dark beauty of his tone and the sensitivity of hisphrasing. They show why, to quote theOxford Dictionary of Opera (second edition), "he was considered the finest [Hans] Sachs, Kurwenal and Wotan of the first decade" of the 20th century. (Some of his recordings are available on CD reissues.)
After leaving the Metropolitan Opera, van Rooy became the leading Wagnerian baritone of theFrankfurt Opera; but by this juncture his voice had deteriorated prematurely due to vigorous over-use and his willingness to sing roles with a higher range than was ideal for his sonorous instrument.
Anton van Rooy died inMunich in 1932, at the age of 62.
