Richard Tauber
Austrian tenor (1891-1948)
Richard Tauber (16 May 1891 – 8 January 1948) was an Austrian lyric tenor and film actor. He performed the tenor role in numerous operas, including Don Giovanni by Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Early life
Richard Tauber was born in Linz, Austria, to Elisabeth Seifferth (née Denemy), a widow and actress who performed soubrette roles at the local theater, and Richard Anton Tauber, an actor. His parents were not married, and his father was reportedly unaware of his birth as he was touring North America at the time. The child was named Richard Denemy. He was sometimes known as [Carl] Richard Tauber and also used his mother's married name, Seiffert; however, the claim by the Encyclopædia Britannica that he was ever known as Ernst Seiffert is not supported by any of the 12 published books and monographs about him listed in Daniel O'Hara's comprehensive Richard Tauber Chronology. After being adopted by his father in 1913, his legal name became Richard Denemy-Tauber.
Tauber accompanied his mother on theatrical tours, but she found it increasingly difficult to manage and eventually left him with foster parents in Urfahr, now a suburb of Linz. In 1897–98, he attended school in Linz, after which his father assumed responsibility for his upbringing, moving him to Graz, Prague, Berlin, Salzburg, and finally Wiesbaden. His father, who was born Jewish, but had converted to Roman Catholicism, hoped his son would become a priest.
The public source identifies “Richard Tauber” as austrian tenor (1891-1948). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Richard, Tauber and Austrian.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q78632. VIAF identifies the subject as 51876682. The Library of Congress control number is n82077859. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1891, 1948, 1913 and 1897.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Tauber” 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.