After initial roles such as Mozart's Figaro and Don Giovanni, he turned to Wagner, including Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen.
His roles included Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno and Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Kurwenal in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Alberich, and Strauss roles Orest in Elektra, the music teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos, and especially Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, which he sang 88 times..[2][3] In May 1995, he sang the role of Don Giulio in the world premiere of Alfred Schnittke's opera Gesualdo.
[3] Sixtus Beckmesser in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg became Hornik's signature role.
[2] In the 1976/77 season, Hornik appeared in the title role of Alban Berg's Wozzeck at la Scala in Milan.
[2] In September 2007, he made another guest appearance at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, where his career had begun in the 1960s, in the speaking role as the music teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos.
His students included Clemens Unterreiner,[1] Anna Siminska (soprano),[12] and Andrejus Kalinovas (tenor).
[13] Source:[3] Alban Berg: Hector Berlioz: Georges Bizet: Gaetano Donizetti: Gottfried von Einem: Umberto Giordano: Hans Werner Henze: Leoš Janáček: Leoncavallo: Albert Lortzing: Jules Massenet: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Otto Nicolai: Jacques Offenbach: Hans Pfitzner: Giacomo Puccini: Gioachino Rossini: Arnold Schoenberg: Franz Schreker: Johann Strauss I: Richard Strauss: Giuseppe Verdi: Richard Wagner: Carl Maria von Weber: