Endrik Wottrich, who has died from a heart attack aged 52, was a German tenor who sang at Covent Garden and Bayreuth; ten years ago he created a stir by alleging that drug taking and alcohol abuse were rife within the world of opera.
“No one talks about it, but doping has long been the norm in the music world,” he told a German newspaper. “Soloists are taking beta blockers in an attempt to control their angst, some tenors take cortisone to ensure their voices reach a high pitch, and alcohol is standard practice.”
He also caused controversy by criticising Christoph Schlingensief’s controversial staging of Parsifal at Bayreuth in 2004 in which he was singing the title role. “His production was a mishmash of satanic rituals, orgies, garbage and hundreds of video productions,” Wottrich recalled, “while I tried as much as I could to keep to Wagner’s intentions.”
Powerfully built, and with lungs to match his physique, Wottrich would enthral audiences with the strength of his voice, while endearing himself to his fellow singers with his kind manner and big laugh. The New York Times described his performance in Parsifal as “pure-voiced (if sceptical)”.
In his notorious interview Wottrich compared the opera world with the Tour de France, which at the time was discredited by drug scandals, claiming that extortion was widespread and alleging that “claques” were being hired to heckle or applaud performers.
“The comparison between cycling is not so off the wall,” he said. “The real fear is no longer good old-fashioned stage fright, but comes from this new dimension that has forced its way into opera … managers who have a locust-like approach to their singers, knowing that a voice can earn millions within just a few years, and there are many who want to cream off as much money from that in as short time as possible … it is prostitution.”
Endrik Wottrich was born in Celle, north east of Hanover, on October 13 1964. His mother played the piano, while young Endrik sang in the church choir and learnt the violin. He studied music in Würzburg and at the Juilliard School in New York, but had no intention of becoming an opera singer until hearing a performance of Don Carlo on the radio starring Plácido Domingo and Montserrat Caballé.
“It moved me so much that from that moment I wanted to become a tenor,” he said. Some years later he recounted the tale to Domingo, who declared: “Then I am proud that I am guilty.”
He made his stage debut in 1992 as Cassio in Verdi’s Otello at Wiesbaden and was soon receiving offers from many of the world’s leading opera houses, including Daniel Barenboim at Berlin the following year.
His first appearance at Bayreuth was in 2006 as David, the apprentice, in Die Meistersinger; the following year he was at the Royal Opera to sing Florestan in Fidelio with Karita Mattila, returning as Erik in The Flying Dutchman in 2011 and as the Drum Major in Berg’s Wozzeck in 2013 with Simon Keenlyside in the title role.
Covent Garden, he told the journalist Keith McDonnell, was the “most civilised, ambitious and warm-hearted place” he had worked, adding: “Here I am in an organisation that meets my expectations as to how opera should work.”
For some years he was in a relationship with Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of the composer and chatelaine of Bayreuth, but said that his stance against Schlingensief’s staging had cost him “the love of my life”. He was unmarried.
Endrik Wottrich, born October 13 1964, died April 26 2017
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