Kammersänger Joseph Witt was a tenor who was a regular performer at the Wiener Staatsoper before WW II. He made several widely circulated recordings of Strauss operas with Karl Böhm and Clemens Krauss, in which he sang secondary parts in operas like Ariadne and Arabella. He was also remembered for his compelling interpretation of Palestrina in Otto Erhart’s production of Pfitzner’s opera at the Staatsoper in 1937. He conducted opera classes at the Akadamie fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna until his death in 1990. Singers like South African soprano Mimi Coertse, who went on to have important opera careers in Austria and Germany, were among his students.
