Alan Titus

Alan Titus (born in New York City, on October 28, 1945) is an internationally-celebrated baritone. He studied under Aksel Schiøtz at the Colorado School of Music, and Hans Heinz at The Juilliard School. His official debut was as Marcello in La bohème, in Washington, DC, in 1969. He came to prominence, however, in Leonard Bernstein's theatre piece MASS, as the Celebrant, in 1971. That same year, he created the role of Archie Kramer in Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke (after Tennessee Williams) in St Paul. The latter was the opera of his debut the same year at the New York City Opera, where he was a leading baritone for many seasons, participating in nationally-televised performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia (with Beverly Sills, 1976), Il Turco in Italia (1978), La Cenerentola (opposite Susanne Marsee and Rockwell Blake, 1980), and Madama Butterfly (conducted by Christopher Keene, 1982). He made his only appearances with the Metropolitan Opera in 1976, as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, with Montserrat Caballé.

In 1973, Titus made his European debut, in Amsterdam, as Pelléas. He has since been heard at Glyndebourne, Munich, Milan (Teatro alla Scala), Madrid, Barcelona, Vienna, Paris, Rome, London (Covent Garden), Berlin, etc. In 2000, he was Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival; he had previously portrayed the name part in Der fliegende Holländer (1998 and 1999).

In 1994, the singing-actor was awarded the title of Kammersänger, in Munich.

In his discography are recordings of Beethoven's Fidelio (as Don Pizzaro), Bizet's Carmen, Catalani's La Wally, Donizetti's Don Pasquale (with Sills, conducted by Sarah Caldwell), Haydn's La fedeltà premiata (conducted by Antal Doráti), Lehár's Die lustige Witwe (excerpts, in English, under Julius Rudel), Leoncavallo's La bohème, Mozart's Don Giovanni (led by Rafael Kubelík) and Le nozze di Figaro (as Figaro, conducted by Sir Colin Davis), Puccini's La bohème (led by Kent Nagano), and Verdi's Falstaff (as Ford, with Sir Colin).

Bibliography

• The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, Simon and Schuster, 1987. ISBN 0-671-61732-X