Nitschke was born in Adelaide the second son of Wilhelm Nitschke (c. 8 August 1816 – 3 August 1889) and his wife Elise Catharine Nitschke, née Mehrtens ( – 1909). Wilhelm Nitschke arrived in South Australia aboard
Wilhelmina Maria from Germany in August 1849, and Elise Catharine Mehrtens arrived from Germany aboard
Herder in September 1851 with her four sisters. They married in 1853. Prior to leaving Europe Wilhelm was a
coppersmith involved in construction of distillation plants. He was the first person in the colony to manufacture ice, and set up an ice manufactory in
Mauritius which with his house was destroyed by fire, and unfortunately for Nitschke, uninsured. After some fifteen years of building
stills for wineries, set up his own business "Nitschke & Co." at 109 Hindley Street, producing
grape spirit. He founded a distillery in Kent Town which by 1877 was producing prize-winning brandies and other spirits, and around that time moved to
Hackney, between the Hackney Bridge and
St Peter's College and became well known as the
Hackney Distillery. He was one of the founders of the
Adelaide Liedertafel and a prominent member of the German Club. Their home at 69 Hackney Road, "Schweitzen Haus", Richard was educated at E. P. Nesbit's
North Adelaide Educational Institution from 1873 or earlier, followed by
Pulteney Street School, then
St. Peter's College, perhaps only for the year 1878. He studied singing under
W. R. Pybus (1848–1917); his public singing began by contributing items at
Town Hall concerts in 1882 and 1883, and diverse entertainments such as the Kent Town Wesleyan
Band of Hope in 1884, the
Adelaide Yorick Club and a benefit for the
Home for Incurables at the (Adelaide)
Albert Hall in 1885 and a German Shooting Club social in 1886. It is unlikely that he was paid for any of these performances. He frequently appeared at the "Saturday Night Pops" in the Town Hall organised by
P. A. Howell; some other notable contributors being
Ada Crossley,
Armes Beaumont,
Bert Holder and organist Dr.
Harold Davies, later director of the
Elder Conservatorium. His repertoire consisted mostly of "drawing room ballads" such as
Never More (
Mattei) and
Queen of the Earth,
Bedouin Love Song and
Good Night (
Pinsuti), and patriotic songs, which constituted the popular music of the period, more than the classical and operatic canon. He was often called on to contribute to concerts farewelling visiting artists such as
R. Squarise,
Charles Santley, Lili Sharp and Lucy Stevenson, when he might include compositions by fellow South Australian
Moritz Heuzenroeder such as
The Vision,
Thou Art My Queen or
Margaretha. In June 1891 it was Nitschke's turn to be farewelled when he left with
Richart Stewart, jun. on an Australian tour of Heuzenroeder's operetta
The Windmill. With the death of his parents, he became a part-owner of the distillery, along with his brothers Gustav Wilhelm "Gus" Nitschke (1859–1936) and Carl Hermann Wilhelm Luder Richard "C. H." Nitschke (1866–1922). In 1901 he moved to London where in 1902 he married Anna Whittell ( – 22 July 1930), daughter of Dr.
H. T. Whittell, of Adelaide; they lived in London for nearly 30 years; Anna died in 1930 and Nitschke returned to Adelaide. ==Notable performances==