Felix Mottl was an Austrian conductor, composer, and teacher. He was born on August 24, 1856, in Unter St. Veit, now part of Vienna’s Hietzing district. As a child, he sang in the Vienna Boys’ Choir. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory, where Anton Bruckner taught him music theory, Felix Dessoff taught him composition, Joseph Hellmesberger taught him conducting, and A. Door taught him piano.
Mottl became known as an interpreter of Richard Wagner’s music while still young and conducted the Vienna Wagner Society during his student years. In 1876, he helped Hans Richter prepare and stage the first Bayreuth Festival, assisting with score corrections and rehearsals for the first complete staging of The Ring of the Nibelung. He continued to conduct at Bayreuth, leading 69 performances there between 1886 and 1906, including Tristan und Isolde in 1886. In 1903, he conducted the American premiere of Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera. He also led Wagner performances at London’s Covent Garden and in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
From 1881, Mottl conducted at the court theater and the philharmonic choir in Karlsruhe. In 1893, he became general music director there, succeeding his former teacher Dessoff. From 1903, he was principal conductor of the Bavarian Court Opera, and from 1904 he co-directed the Munich Music Academy with H. Busmeyer and conducted its concerts. He became general music director of Munich in 1907 and toured widely in Europe as an opera and symphonic conductor. His works included several operas, a string quartet, and songs; he also taught at the Munich Music Academy.
On June 21, 1911, Mottl suffered a heart attack while conducting Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. He died in hospital in Munich on July 2, 1911, aged 54.