Born in Vienna,[1] Gutstein studied singing at the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien with Josef Witt and the baritone Hans Duhan, among others.

Other roles at the Volksoper included Kruschina in Smetana's Die verkaufte Braut in 1973, Fadenkreutz in Blacher's Preußisches Märchen in 1978, and the Brazilian in Offenbach's La vie parisienne in 1980.

[6] Gutstein first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1959 as Ernesto in Haydn's Il mondo della luna, a role originally written for a castrato.

In 1964 at the Oper Frankfurt, he sang the title role in Verdi's Macbeth alongside Inge Borkh, staged by Harry Buckwitz.

[12][13] The critic from El Ciervo described his interpretation of La Roche in Capriccio as "unforgettable" and showing "absolute mastery of the role",[14] and both John Steane and Stanley Sadie praised his portrayal of the impoverished aristocrat Count Waldner in Arabella.

[15][16] He also sang in the world premieres of several contemporary operas: as Perlimplin in Fortner's In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1962; the title role in the stage version of Henze's Ein Landarzt at Frankfurt opera in 1965; as Graf von Stoffeln in Josef Matthias Hauer's Die schwarze Spinne at the Theater an der Wien in 1966; and as Old Mahon in Klebe's Ein wahrer Held at the Opernhaus Zürich in 1975.

[19] He appeared in a live recording of excerpts from Verdi's Macbeth in Frankfurt, reviewed a highly motivated singer-actor, with the dark timbre of a full and mature heldenbaritone, with almost no limits in the high register ("... hoch motivierten Sängerdarsteller mit der dunklen Farbe eines vollen, reifen, auch in der Höhe kaum Grenzen kennenden Heldenbaritons ...").