Born Leopold Pokorny in Brno on November 2, 1861, Demuth was the son of a civil servant. He studied at the
Vienna Conservatory with
Josef Gänsbacher. That same year he performed the role of Sebastiano in the Vienna premiere of
Eugen d'Albert's
Tiefland. Demuth also appeared as a guest artist at several opera houses during his career, including the
Berlin State Opera (1897), the
Munich Opera Festival (1903 and 1905), and the
New German Theatre, Prague (1907). In 1899 he performed the roles of Hans Sachs in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Gunther in
Götterdämmerung at the
Bayreuth Festival. Other opera houses he performed at as a guest included the
Breslau Opera, the
Cologne Opera, and the
Frankfurt Opera. Some of the other roles in Demuth's repertoire included Count Almaviva in Mozart's
The Marriage of Figaro, Guglielmo in Mozart's
Così fan tutte, Herr Fluth in
Otto Nicolai's
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Jochanaan in
Richard Strauss's
Salome, Johannes Freudhofer in
Wilhelm Kienzl's
Der Evangelimann, King Solomon in Goldmark's
Die Königin von Saba, Kühleborn in
Albert Lortzing's
Undine, Kunrad in Strauss's
Feuersnot, Renato in Verdi's
Un ballo in maschera, Telramund in Wagner's
Lohengrin, Tio Lucas in
Hugo Wolf's
Der Corregidor, Tonio in
Pagliacci, Valentin in
Faust, Wolfram in Wagner's
Tannhäuser, Wotan in
The Ring Cycle, and the title roles in Mozart's
Don Giovanni,
Giuseppe Verdi's
Rigoletto, Wagner's
The Flying Dutchman, and
Karel Weis's 1901 opera
Der polnische Jude. Demuth died on March 4, 1910, in Czernowitz (now Chernovtsy, Ukraine). He was buried in the
Vienna Central Cemetery. He made numerous recordings during the last decade of his life; the earliest in 1900 with
Berliner Gramophone. He also made records with
Deutsche Grammophon and the
Gramophone Company. He was married to the actress Eugenie Lenau. == References ==