Juan Luria (20 December 1862 – 21 May 1943) was a Polish-Jewish operatic baritone. Born as Johannes Lorié, he studied with Joseph Gänsbacher in Vienna.
He performed with the Stuttgart Opera (then the Stuttgart Hofheater) in 1885, then at NYC's
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
in the 1890–91 season. While in New York, he sang the roles of Pizarro, Kurwenal, Alberich and Gunther, the American premieres of some little remembered operas such as ''
Diana von Solange'' (9 January 1891).
Among other Metropolitan Opera appearances, he sang two Meyerbeer roles: De Nevers in ''
Les Huguenots
() is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer and is one of the most popular and spectacular examples of grand opera. In five acts, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, it premiered in Paris on 29 February 1836.
Composition history
'' ...
'' and Count Oberthal in ''
Le Prophète
''Le prophète'' (''The Prophet'') is a grand opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which was premiered in Paris on 16 April 1849. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, after passages from the ''Essay on the ...
''. He sang in the Berlin Theater des Westens, Brussels Théâtre de la Monnaie and the Dresden Hoftheater in 1884. In Italy he sang under the name Giovanni Luria in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
and at
La Scala
La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...
in Milan, 1893–94, creating the first Italian Wotan. Upon retirement he turned to teaching. His students included
Käthe Heidersbach, Elfriede Marherr, Michael Bohnen and the tenor Gotthelf Pistor.
In 1937, he fled to the Netherlands, teaching in Amsterdam and The Hague, but was caught after the May 1940 invasion of the Netherlands by German forces and interned in a concentration camp. He was deported from
Westerbork to
Sobibor
Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), ...
on 18 May 1943, aged 81, where he died three days later, on 21 May 1943.
He recorded extensively for Favorite (Berlin, 1905–07), Pathé, Zonophone, Beka, Dacapo, Homochord, Pathé, Parlophon, and Anker. He recorded Jewish songs on Odeon.
Recordings
* ''Duet Fray Heymann-Engel, Juan Luria'' on Imperial Record
* Tchaikowsky, ''Serenade of Don Juan'', Odeon Records N. 51360
References
19th-century Polish male opera singers
Operatic baritones
1862 births
1943 deaths
Polish people who died in Sobibor extermination camp
Musicians from Warsaw
Jewish opera singers
Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust
Expatriates from Austria-Hungary in the United States
20th-century Polish male opera singers
Musicians from Austria-Hungary
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