Leonard Labatt

Who was Leonard Labatt?

Leonard Labatt was a Swedish dramatic tenor.

Labatt was born in a Jewish family in Stockholm and studied under Julius Günther at the Stockholm Conservatory and Jean Jacques Masset at the Paris Conservatory. He made his début in 1866 at the Stora Teatern, Stockholm, in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. During the season of 1868 he was engaged at the Court Opera in Dresden, and in 1869 he joined the Imperial Opera in Vienna, with which he remained until 1883. Between 1884 and 1888 he appeared on several stages in the Netherlands and Germany. In 1888-1889 he went on tour of the United States and Canada with Alexander Strakosch, returning to his native country afterwards. He died, aged 58, in Christiania, Norway.

Labatt's repertoire included: Vasco da Gama in Meyerbeer's The African Maid, the title role in Gounod's Faust, Eleazar in Halévy's The Jewess, and the title roles in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser and Rienzi.