Anton van Rooy

Who was Anton van Rooy?

Anton van Rooy was a Dutch bass-baritone. He had a voice of enormous proportions and is most remembered for his association with the music dramas of Richard Wagner, especially the Ring Cycle, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg and Parsifal.

Born in Rotterdam, van Rooy studied with the famous voice teacher Julius Stockhausen in Frankfurt. He made his operatic debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 1897, singing Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen. The year 1898 saw his debuts in Berlin and at the Royal Opera House in London; and on 14 December that same year he sang for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, as Wotan in Die Walküre.

He remained with the Met until 1908, during which time he was heard in all the leading baritone Wagnerian roles. Most notably, he created Amfortas in the American premiere of Parsifal in 1903. Four years later, he created the part of John the Baptist in the initial New York production of Richard Strauss's then controversial opera, Salome.