Charles Anthony

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Charles Anthony (born July 15, 1929 in New Orleans , Louisiana , † February 15, 2012 in Tampa , Florida ) was an American opera singer with a tenor voice .

Life

Anthony was born in New Orleans as Calogero Antonio Caruso, the son of Italian immigrants from Sicily . He studied music at Loyola University in New Orleans; there Dorothy Hulse was his singing teacher. In 1951 he completed his studies there. At that time his name was Anglicized to Charles Anthony Caruso . He then went to the Metropolitan Opera studio for further studies . In 1952 he won the Auditions of the Air singing competition at the Metropolitan Opera and received a scholarship for further training in Italy. There he was a student of Ricardo Picozzi and Giuseppe Ruisi. Rudolf Bing , the director of the Metropolitan Opera, had previously asked him to change his name during the competition; From then on, Anthony called himself Charles Anthony on stage .

In 1954 Anthony returned to the USA and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera on March 6, 1954, as a fool in Boris Godunov . During his nearly 60 year career singing at the Met Anthony roles of the lyric tenor compartment and games for play tenor and Tenorbuffo.

Anthony was on stage at the MET from 1954 to 2010 in a total of 2,928 performances; he sang 111 roles in 69 different operas. He even surpassed the record of the Russian baritone George Cehanovsky ; between 1926 and 1966 he sang a total of 2,394 performances at the MET. On the occasion of his record, Anthony was publicly honored on the stage of the MET on February 17, 1992 during a performance of the opera Rigoletto , in which he sang the role of the courtier Borsa.

His leading roles as a lyric tenor included: Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (1954, with Roberta Peters as partner), Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore , Ernesto in Don Pasquale , Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (alongside Herva Nelli as Donna Anna), Rodolfo in La Bohème and Andres in Wozzeck (1959). As a buffotenor he interpreted David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Beppe in Der Bajazzo , Rodrigo in Otello ( inter alia in October 1987), Il tinca in Il tabarro ( inter alia in October 1989) and the roles of ministers Pang and Pong in Turandot . In this opera he later sang the Kaiser Altoum. At the age of 66 he added this role to his repertoire.

Anthony sang mostly small and medium parts; With the interpretation of these Comprimario roles he was one of the indispensable pillars of the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera. These roles included: the judge in Un ballo in maschera (1955, in the MET debut of Marian Anderson ), Gastone in La traviata (1958, alongside Maria Callas ), Ruiz in Il trovatore (a total of 141 performances; 1961 too Leontyne Price's MET debut ), Der Wirt in Der Rosenkavalier (a total of 159 performances) and Spoletta in Tosca (a total of 135 performances). With the latter role he also celebrated his 50th stage anniversary on March 6, 2004 at the MET. On January 28, 2010, at the age of 80, he took leave of the stage in the role of the old Emperor Altoum in Turandot .

Anthony died of complications from kidney failure at his Tampa, Florida home, aged 82 .

Audio documents

In 1956 and 1957 Anthony recorded operatic cross-cuts with excerpts from Les contes d'Hoffmann , Pagliacci , La Périchole (with Patrice Munsel and Theodor Uppman ) and Don Pasquale (with Salvatore Baccaloni ) for the Metropolitan Opera Record Club . The recordings later appeared on RCA .

In 1982 Anthony sang the role of Gastone in La Traviata for the soundtrack of the opera film with Teresa Stratas , Plácido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil under the musical direction of James Levine . This production was later released on DVD . In 1990 he took on the small role of the messenger in Aida , again under the musical direction of James Levine.

Charles Anthony's voice has been passed down in particular through numerous live recordings and live recordings from the MET; numerous performances were also televised and later released on DVD.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Charles Anthony Dies at 82; Sang 2,928 Times at Met Obituary in: New York Times February 15, 2012
  2. ^ A b c After 57 Years at the Met, a Tenor's Swan Song in: New York Times, January 27, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Anthony, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caruso, Charles Anthony; Caruso, Calogero Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH New Orleans , Louisiana, United States
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 2012
Place of death Tampa , Florida, United States