List first began singing as a boy
soprano in a Vienna choir, and also sang in the
musical theater there. When his family moved to America, he sang in
vaudeville. In 1920, he returned to Vienna for additional training; his first opera role was at the
Volksoper in 1922, as Mephistopheles in
Charles Gounod's
Faust. In 1923 he was offered a role in a production at the Charlottenburg opera company in Berlin, and two years later he joined the
Berlin State Opera. That year he debuted in the role of Pogner in Wagner's
Die Meistersinger, and went on to portray King Mark in
Tristan und Isolde, Hunding in
Die Walküre and Hagen in
Götterdammerung, as well as Ramfis in
Giuseppe Verdi's
Aida and Baron Ochs in
Richard Strauss's
Der Rosenkavalier. At the
Salzburg Festival in Austria, List reprised his performance as King Mark and also played the roles of Osmin in
Mozart's
Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Commendatore in
Don Giovanni, as well as Rocco in
Beethoven's
Fidelio. He did the entire
Ring Cycle at the 1933
Bayreuth Festival, singing Hunding, Hagen, and Fafner. List's Jewish heritage led him to leave Germany in 1933 for America; later that year he played the Landgrave in Wagner's
Tannhäuser at the
Metropolitan Opera, and remained in the company until 1950. He became an American citizen, and sang in San Francisco, Chicago, and Buenos Aires in addition to New York. In 1950, he made his first appearance in Berlin since he had left the country, and retired in 1952. He died in 1967. List Hall at the Metropolitan Opera House is named in his honor. ==References==