He was destined for a career as an architect, but at a gathering at the home of his brother-in-law Paul Lindau, where Kalisch sang a few selections from Schubert and Wagner, his voice so impressed Pollini and Adelina Patti that they urged him to go on the stage.

Shortly afterward Kalisch went to Italy to study under Leoni and Lamperti, and he made his debut at Varese in 1880 as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

After a most successful tour through Italy and Spain he sang in 1883 at the royal operas at Munich, Berlin, and Vienna, and at the Stadttheaters of Hamburg, Leipzig, and Cologne.

He stayed a short time in Germany, and then together with Lilli Lehmann – whom he later married in New York on 24 February 1888[1] – went to London, where he sang in Tristan und Isolde at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Kalisch's most successful rôles were Jean de Leyde, Eleazar, Otello, Siegmund, Siegfried, Tannhäuser, and Tristan.