He was one of the best opera singers of his time. He studied singing under Adolf Robinson in Brünn. He made his debut as baritone in 1896 at the Municipal Theatre of Brünn as Telramund in ‘’Lohengrin’’. Then till 1897 he was active at the Municipal Theatre of Olmütz and in 1898 he was engaged by the Berlin Court Opera. Here he sang among other things on 18. 4. 1899 in the premiere of the opera ‘’Mudarra’’ of Fernand Le Borne, on 10. 4. 1900 in Ferdinand Hummel's opera ‘’ Die Beichte’’, on 13. 12. 1904 in the premiere of Leoncavallo’s opera ‘’Der Roland von Berlin’’; on 14. 4. 1905 in the Berlin premiere of E.Humperdinck’s ‘’Die Heirat wider Willen’’. In 1901, 1906 and 1908 he appeared at Bayreuth Festival in ‘’Parsifal’’ and ‘’Götterdämmerung’’. In 1908 he retired for a year and studied under Oscar Sänger, reappearing as a tenor in ‘’Lohengrin’’ at a performance in Berlin in 1909. In 1913 he married the American soprano Marie Rappold (1879-1957). After guest performances, primarily, in Wagner's operas in Paris, London, Prague and Amsterdam as well as at the Vienna Court Opera, in 1913 he was engaged to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (debuted in 1914 as Siegmund in ‘’Walküre’’). In his two seasons, he sang 24 performances of 8 roles, including Siegfried, Lohengrin, Walther, Parsifal, Tristan, and Tannhäuser. His only non-Wagnerian role was Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. However, his career total number of roles was 96 as a baritone and 18 as a tenor. He suddenly died, at the height of his career, only 41 years old.