Juan Luria

Who was Juan Luria?

Juan Luria was a Polish baritone.

Born Johannes Lorié, He studied with Joseph Gänsbacher in Vienna. He performed with the Stuttgart Opera in 1885, then at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the 1890-91 season. While in New York Luria sang the roles of Pizarro, Kurwenal, Alberich and Gunther, the American premieres of some little remembered operas such as Diana von Solange. Among other Metropolitan Opera appearances, he sang two Meyerbeer roles: De Nevers in Les Huguenottes and Count Oberthal in The Prophet. He sang in the Berlin Theater des Westens, Brussels Theatre de la Monnaie and the Dresden Hoftheater in 1884. In Italy he sang under the name Giovanni Luria in Genua and in La Scala 1893-94, creating the first Italian Wotan

On retirement he turned to teaching. His students included Käthe Heidersbach, Elfriede Marherr, Michael Bohnen and the tenor Gotthelf Pistor.

In 1937 he fled to the Netherlands, teaching in Amsterdam and Den Haag, but was caught. After a concentration camp in the Netherlands he was deported to Sobibor in 1942, at the age of 79, where he died on May 21, 1943.

He recorded extensively for Favorite, Pathé, Zonophone, Beka, Dacapo, Homochord, Pathé, Parlophon, and Anker. He recorded Jewish songs on Odeon.