He initially studied jurisprudence and earned a doctorate before turning to music, where he trained in singing under Guarino in Milan. He made his operatic debut in 1910 at the German Theater in Prague, performing as Telramund in Lohengrin. During the 1910-1911 season, he was engaged by the Theater in Teplitz (Teplice), and in the 1911-1912 season, he appeared at the Theater in Linz.

From 1912 to 1915, he was a prominent member of the Vienna People’s Opera, where he took part in the German premiere of P. Mascagni’s Isabeau in 1912 and performed as Amfortas in the premiere of Parsifal in 1914. The 1915-1916 season saw him at the Vienna Court Opera, and from 1916 to 1922, he was active at the Court Opera (later the State Opera) in Munich, where he notably sang as Barak in the 1919 premiere of R. Strauss’s Frau ohne Schatten.

From 1922 to 1938, he continued his successful career at the Vienna State Opera. During the 1925-1927 seasons, he was also a member of the German Opera in Berlin. His repertoire included significant premieres, such as Paul Graener’s Theophano (Munich, 1918), Franz Schreker’s Das Spielwerk (Munich, 1920), and Walter Braunfels’s Die Vögel (Munich, December 4, 1920).

He enjoyed a wide range of guest performances in cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris (where he appeared as Wotan at the Grand Opéra in 1928), and Budapest. He was a regular at Covent Garden in London from the 1924-1928 seasons. His South American tours included performances at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, where he sang Wotan in the premiere of Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1922 and appeared as Orest in the premiere of Richard Strauss’s Elektra in 1923, adding roles such as Jochanaan in Salome, Telramund, and Kurwenal to his repertoire.

In North America, he performed at the opera houses of Chicago and Boston during the 1928-1929 season. At the Salzburg Festival, he was featured in 1930 as Agamemnon in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide and as Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde under Toscanini in the 1935-1936 season. He retired from the stage in 1938. He was married to contralto Maria Olszewska (1892-1964), with whom he made several recordings.