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Leopold Demuth

Austrian singer and opera singer (1861–1910)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 3, 2025
Entity authorityQ1455558 ↗
Source-derived summary

Leopold Demuth (real name Leopold Pokorny (2 November 1861 in Brno – 4 March 1910 in Czernowitz) was a Moravian operatic baritone. He was celebrated in particular for his successful performances in works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.

Life

Born Leopold Pokorny in Brno on November 2, 1861, Demuth was the son of a civil servant. Before his singing career, he served in the military. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Josef Gänsbacher. In 1889 he made his professional opera debut at the Halle Opera House as the title hero in Heinrich Marschner's Hans Heiling. From 1891 through 1896 he was a resident artist at the Leipzig Opera, and from 1896 through 1898 he was committed to the Hamburg State Opera.

In 1898 Demuth became a resident performer with the Vienna State Opera; a position he held until his death twelve years later. At that opera house he sang a total of 68 leading roles under the leadership of Gustav Mahler. These included the first Falstaff heard at that theatre in 1904, and the first performance of Scarpia at that house in 1910.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Leopold Demuth” as austrian singer and opera singer (1861–1910). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Leopold, Demuth and Austrian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1861, 1910, 1889, 1891—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1861-11-02. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Leopold, Demuth and Austrian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Leopold Demuth”, the useful work is to connect “austrian singer and opera singer (1861–1910)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1455558. VIAF identifies the subject as 71577654. The Library of Congress control number is no93001427. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1910, 1889 and 1891.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Leopold Demuth”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Leopold Demuth primary sources, Leopold Demuth archive and Leopold research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Leopold Demuth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.