Cornell MacNeil

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Cornell MacNeil (born September 24, 1922 in Minneapolis , † July 15, 2011 in Charlottesville , Virginia ) was an American opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

MacNeil was born in the US state of Minnesota ; his father worked as a dentist , his mother was a singer and had studied with the famous concert singer and singing teacher Ernestine Schumann-Heink . MacNeil had the desire to become an opera singer early in his youth. Because of his asthma , he was released from military service in World War II . He initially worked as a lathe operator and machinist. On the advice of his mother, he finally had his voice trained professionally. He completed a brief vocal course at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford ; there the famous Wagner baritone Friedrich Schorr was one of his teachers.

MacNeil first appeared in musicals on Broadway . He made his debut as an opera singer in March 1950 at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia in the role of freedom fighter John Sorel in the world premiere of the opera The Consul . The composer Gian Carlo Menotti had specifically chosen MacNeil for this role. MacNeil continued to take singing lessons thereafter. During this time, he worked the night shift at the Bulova watch factory in Queens .

From 1953 to 1955 he sang at the New York City Center Opera ; his inaugural role there was Germont-Père in La traviata . In 1955 he sang at the San Francisco Opera . There he appeared as Escamillo in Carmen , as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and as Heerrufer in Lohengrin . In the 1958/1959 season he sang at La Scala in Milan ; his debut there was in March 1959 with the role of Don Carlo in Ernani .

In 1959 he was committed to the Metropolitan Opera ; his first role was in March 1959, the title role in Rigoletto . MacNeil had flown from Milan to New York City immediately after his Scala engagement and took over the game without a single rehearsal. In this role he appeared over 100 times at the MET. MacNeil sang at the Metropolitan Opera for almost thirty years. He appeared there in a total of 26 games in 642 performances.

MacNeil sang the following roles at the MET: the title role in Nabucco , Count Luna in Il trovatore , Germont-Père in La traviata , Renato in Un ballo in maschera (for the first time in 1962), Amonasro in Aida , Iago in Otello , Barnaba in La Gioconda , Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana , Tonio in I Pagliacci and Michele in Il tabarro . Occasionally, in the original language, he also took on roles in German opera, particularly the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer . MacNeil, however, was mainly considered a singer of Italian operas, in particular by Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini . Police chief Scarpia in Tosca was one of his special brilliant roles . He sang this role over 90 times at the MET; for the first time in November 1959. With this role he officially took leave of the opera stage in December 1987.

MacNeil sang at the Covent Garden Opera (1964, title role in Macbeth ), at the Grand Opéra Paris , Teatro Colón , at the Rio de Janeiro Opera House , at the Gran Teatre del Liceu , at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon , at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo , at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples , at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and at the Opera of Rome . In 1971, 1972 and 1982 he sang at the Vienna State Opera . There he appeared as Germont-père, Rigoletto, Jago, Tonio, Renato, Posa in Don Carlo and in the title role of the Wagner opera Der Fliegende Holländer . In 1987, shortly before the end of his stage career, he sang Iago in Verdi's opera Otello at the New Orleans Opera House .

He appeared at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , at the Festival in the Arena di Verona (1971, 1973) and at the open-air performances in the Caracalla Baths .

In 1969 MacNeil became president of the American Guild of Musical Artists .

Voice and sound documents

MacNeil's voice was a powerful, pure baritone ; in particular, it was valued for its good height and for its security in high notes. The All Music Guide highlights MacNeil's round and voluminous voice; A certain noticeable discontinuity in singing was defused and alleviated in MacNeil's work by his radiant voice. At the beginning of his career, MacNeil was best known as a Verdi interpreter; later he also took on some selected roles in Italian verismo in his repertoire. Critics have always highlighted MacNeil's vocal skills; However, his lack of acting talent and his often wooden, statuary play was often criticized.

Cornell MacNeil's voice has come down to us on numerous audio documents. His glossy roles are largely recorded on records. His records appear mainly with the record companies at Decca and RCA . There are complete recordings of the operas La fanciulla del West (Decca 1958, with Renata Tebaldi and Mario del Monaco as partners), Aida (Decca 1958; conductor: Herbert von Karajan , with Renata Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi as partners), Un ballo in maschera (Decca 1961; conductor: Georg Solti , with Birgit Nilsson ) and Luisa Miller (RCA 1965, as Miller). He took up the title role in Rigoletto twice in the studio : in 1961 for Decca (with Joan Sutherland as Gilda) and again in 1967 for EMI . There are also numerous live recordings, in particular of performances from the Metropolitan Opera.

Several performances from the Metropolitan Opera were also recorded for television , so that MacNeil also has numerous film documents . Some of the recordings were later published on video and DVD . Film documented include MacNeil's Rigoletto (MET 1977, with Ileana Cotrubas and Plácido Domingo ), Jago (MET 1978, with Renata Scotto and Jon Vickers ) and twice his Scarpia in Tosca : 1978 with Shirley Verrett and Luciano Pavarotti as partners and again in 1985 with Hildegard Behrens and Plácido Domingo.

In the opera film La Traviata (1982) MacNeil played and sang Germont-père alongside Teresa Stratas and Plácido Domingo, directed by Franco Zeffirelli . Part of the praise was MacNeil's unusually good game in this film. However, his vocal performance was widely criticized.

Private

MacNeil was married twice. His first marriage later ended in divorce. His marriage to his first wife Margaret Gavan had five children, two sons and three daughters. His son, the tenor Walter MacNeil (* 1957), also became an opera singer. In his second marriage, MacNeil was married to the violinist Tania Rudensky. MacNeil died in Charlottesville, Virginia, aged 88; he had last lived there in an assisted living facility .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Cornell MacNeil, Verdi Baritone at the Met, Dies at 88 Obituary in: New York Times, July 17, 2011
  2. ^ Index of roles by Cornell MacNeil in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945-2005 , p. 579. Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-85409-449-3
  3. ↑ Cornell MacNeil portrait in the All Music Guide
  4. ↑ Zeffirelli's Phantom of the Traviata ( Memento of the original dated November 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Poison Ivy's Wall of Text (Opernblog)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.poisonivyswalloftext.com
  5. ↑ Hermes Handlexikon: Operas on records: Modest Mussorgsky to Bernd Alois Zimmermann . Selected and commented critically by Karl Löbl and Robert Werba . ECON Taschenbuch Verlag, 1983, page 186. ISBN 3-612-10035-1
personal data
SURNAME MacNeil, Cornell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mac Neil, Cornell; McNeil, Cornell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Minneapolis , United States
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 2011
Place of death Charlottesville , Virginia, United States