[3] Tauber accompanied his mother on theatrical tours, but she found it increasingly difficult to manage and eventually left him with foster parents in Urfahr, now a suburb of Linz.

In 1897–98, he attended school in Linz, after which his father assumed responsibility for his upbringing, moving him to Graz, Prague, Berlin, Salzburg, and finally Wiesbaden.

Although Tauber aspired to become a singer, he failed to impress the teachers he auditioned for, likely because he chose to sing Wagner, a repertoire unsuited to his voice.

[7][8] After an intensive period of vocal training under Carl Beines, Tauber made his public debut at a concert in Freiburg on 17 May 1912.

That same year, his father was appointed Intendant of the Municipal Theater in Chemnitz, which allowed him to arrange Tauber's debut as Tamino in The Magic Flute on 2 March 1913.

This performance was attended by Nikolaus Count von Seebach [de] of the Dresden Opera, who had already offered Tauber a five-year contract starting on 1 August.

"[4][7][9] In 1926, he rescued the German premiere of Puccini's Turandot at the Staatsoper Dresden by learning the role of Calaf in three days after tenor Curt Taucher fell ill.[10] After guest appearances at the Wiener Volksoper in 1920, Tauber made his Vienna State Opera debut on 16 June in La bohème, stepping in for an indisposed Alfred Piccaver.

Tauber sang tenor roles in numerous operas, including Don Giovanni, The Bartered Bride, Tosca, Mignon, Faust, Carmen, and Die Fledermaus.

His exceptional breath control allowed him to produce a superb head voice, remarkable messa di voce, and exquisite pianissimo.

In the years that followed, Lehár composed several operettas with roles written specifically for Richard Tauber, including Paganini (1925, although Tauber was unavailable for the Vienna premiere and first performed it in Berlin in 1926), Der Zarewitsch (1927), Friederike (1928), The Land of Smiles (1929), which featured the famous aria "Dein ist mein ganzes Herz", Schön ist die Welt (1930), and Giuditta (1934).

Following the assault, he decided to leave Germany for his native Austria, where he continued to perform at the Vienna State Opera until the Anschluss in March 1938.

He was touring South Africa when World War II broke out and returned to Switzerland until receiving the papers allowing him to enter the UK in March 1940.

With little opera staged in wartime Britain, he earned a living by singing, conducting, and making gramophone records and radio broadcasts.

In 1946, Tauber appeared in a Broadway adaptation of The Land of Smiles (Yours is my Heart), which flopped, leaving him with huge personal losses and in debt to the backers.

He was thus forced to tour the United States, Canada, Central, and South America for six months to recoup the losses, with Arpad Sandor and George Schick serving as his accompanists, and Neil Chotem as an assisting artist.

Live excerpts of these two arias from this performance survive, revealing a tone of undiminished focus and steadiness, a good line, and somewhat shortened phrasing.

Tauber made over 720 vocal recordings for the Odeon/Parlophone companies, as well as several as an orchestral conductor, primarily of his own works, but also of music by Grieg and Johann Strauss, Jr..

Among the 120 acoustic recordings, the most notable include arias by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Kienzl, along with songs by Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Grieg.