opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
tic
bass
Bass or Basses may refer to:
Fish
* Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species
Music
* Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range:
** Bass (instrument), including:
** Acoustic bass gui ...
who is chiefly associated with the
basso profundo
Basso profondo (Italian: "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo, contrabass or oktavist, is the lowest bass voice type.
While ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' defines a typical bass as having a range that is limited to the second E below ...
repertoire. Now retired from performance, he was particularly active with the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
in New York City where he gave more than 400 performances from 1975 to 1995.
Career
A native of
Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
, Booth studied singing at the
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman.
It offers Bachelor of Music (B.M ...
with
Julius Huehn
Julius Huehn (January 12, 1904 – June 8, 1971) was an operatic bass-baritone. He sang in over 200 performances with the Metropolitan Opera between 1935 and 1946.
Huehn sang many Wagner roles, including Wotan in ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walku ...
and with
Todd Duncan
Robert Todd Duncan (February 12, 1903 – February 28, 1998) was an American baritone opera singer and actor. One of the first African-Americans to sing with a major opera company, Duncan is also noted for appearing as Porgy in the premier produ ...
in Washington D.C. He began his singing career as a member of the
United States Army Chorus
The United States Army Band, also known as "Pershing's Own", is the premier musical organization of the United States Army, founded in 1922. There are currently nine official performing ensembles in the unit: The U.S. Army Concert Band, The U.S. A ...
June Anderson
June Anderson (born December 30, 1952) is a Grammy Award-winning American coloratura soprano. She is known for ''bel canto'' performances of Rossini, Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini.
Subsequently, she has extended her repertoire to include a wid ...
in 3rd place and Jeannine Altmeyer in 1st place. That same year he achieved his first critical success singing in concert with the Lake George Opera. He made his professional opera debut in 1971 at the Kennedy Center as the King of Scotland in Handel's '' Ariodante''.
From 1971 to 1974 Booth was committed to the San Francisco Opera. He made his debut with the company as one of the young lovers in a production of Karl Orff's '' Carmina Burana''.
On October 16, 1975, Booth made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Tom in Verdi's ''
Un ballo in maschera
''Un ballo in maschera'' ''(A Masked Ball)'' is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, '' Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué''.
The ...
'' with
Nicolai Gedda
Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, known professionally as Nicolai Gedda (11 July 1925 – 8 January 2017), was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made h ...
is Ricardo, Roberta Peters as Oscar, and Henry Lewis conducting. He went on to sing more than 30 roles with the company over the next two decades, including Basilio in ''
The Barber of Seville
''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( it, Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione ) is an ''opera buffa'' in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was base ...
'', Colline in '' La bohème'', Count Ceprano in '' Rigoletto'', Dansker in ''
Billy Budd
''Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)'' is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece when a hastily transcribed version was finally published in 1924, it quick ...
'', Don Fernando in ''
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with ...
'', Dr. Grenvil in ''
La traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
'', both Fafner and Fasolt in ''
The Ring Cycle
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelung ...
Tosca
''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...
'', the Marquis de Calatrava in ''
La Forza del Destino
' (; ''The Power of Fate'', often translated ''The Force of Destiny'') is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, ' (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, wi ...
Boris Godunov
Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...
'', both Ramfis and the King in '' Aida'', Schmidt in ''
Andrea Chénier
''Andrea Chénier'' () is a verismo opera in four acts by Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica, and first performed on 28 March 1896 at La Scala, Milan. The story is based loosely on the life of the French poet Andr ...
'', Talpa in ''
Il tabarro
''Il tabarro'' (''The Cloak'') is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on 's play ''La houppelande''. It is the first of the trio of operas known as ''Il trittico''. The first performance was given ...
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' among others. His final performance at the Met was on December 21, 1995, as Schwarz in Wagner's ''
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...
Ben Heppner
Thomas Bernard Heppner (born January 14, 1956) is a Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice.
Early life and career
Heppner, of Mennonite descent, was born in Mur ...
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich. ''Houston Grand Opera at ...
San Diego Opera The San Diego Opera Association (SDO) is a professional opera company located in the city of San Diego, California. It incorporated in 1965, presenting operas under the name of the San Diego Opera.Santa Fe Opera as La Notte in the American premiere of
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque music, Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverd ...
The Mother of Us All
''The Mother of Us All'' is a two-act opera composed by Virgil Thomson to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Thomson and Stein met in 1945 to begin the writing process, almost twenty years after their first collaborative project, the opera ''Four Sain ...
''; a production which was recorded on disc. He later returned to Santa Fe in 1980 to perform the role of Sarastro in ''
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...
'' and Prince Gremin in '' Eugene Onegin''. In 1989 he notably portrayed the role of Pantalone De' Bisognos in the American premiere of Pietro Mascagni's ''
Le maschere
''Le maschere'' (''The Masks'') is an opera in a Prologue and three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica.
The work was Mascagni's homage to Rossini and to the Italian opera buffa and commedia dell'arte traditions. It ...
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are '' Manon'' (1884) and ''Werther' ...
: '' Esclarmonde'' (November 8, 1974, live broadcast). Clifford Grant (The Emperor Phorcas),
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s.
She possessed ...
(Esclarmonde),
Huguette Tourangeau
Huguette Tourangeau, (August 12, 1938 – April 21, 2018) was a French-Canadian operatic mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with the French and Italian repertories.
Life and career
Huguette Tourangeau was born in Montreal, Quebec, and gra ...
(Parséis),
Giacomo Aragall
Jaume Aragall i Garriga (; born 6 June 1939), better known as Giacomo Aragall, is a Spanish operatic tenor. He became known for his role singing Rodolfo in Puccini's ''La bohème'' in the late 1960s, and it would become one of the most frequently ...
(The Chevalier Roland), William Harness (Enéas), Philip Booth (Cléomen, King of France), Robert Kerns (The Bishop of Blois), Gary Burgess (A Saracen Envoy, A Byzantine Herald), War Memorial Opera House Orchestra and Chorus, cond. Richard Bonynge. Living Stage. 1110 (2CDs), MONO (quasi-stereo).See
Stereophonic sound
Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
The Mother of Us All
''The Mother of Us All'' is a two-act opera composed by Virgil Thomson to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Thomson and Stein met in 1945 to begin the writing process, almost twenty years after their first collaborative project, the opera ''Four Sain ...
'' Mignon Dunn, Philip Booth, Karen Beck, Sondra Stowe, Jimmie Lu Null,
William Lewis William or Willie Lewis may refer to:
Politicians
* William Lewis (MP for Anglesey) (by 1526–1601 or later), MP for Anglesey in 1553 and 1555
* William Lewis (MP for Helston), MP for Helston in 1584
* William Lewis (MP for King's Lynn) (died 15 ...
, Steven Loewengart, Thomas Parker, Marla McDaniels, D'Artagnan Petty, Stephen Bryant, Ashley Putnam, et al.; Conductor: Raymond Leppard; Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Recorded in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1977. Label: New World Records