Donald Bell

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Donald Munro Bell (born June 19, 1923 in South Burnaby ) is a Canadian opera singer (bass baritone) and singing teacher .

Life

Bell was a student of Nancy Paisley Benn and studied from 1953 to 1955 at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He later completed his training with Hermann Weisenborn in Berlin (1955–1957), Judith Boroschek in Düsseldorf (1967–1976) and Richard Miller in Oberlin (1985–1990). In 1955 he sang at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Berlin State Opera , and in 1958 he appeared in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic and in Boris Blacher's Abstract Opera . From 1958 to 1961 he sang the night watchman in Richard Wagner's Meistersingern annually at the Bayreuth Festival .

In the early 1960s he increasingly appeared as an oratorio singer on the CBC radio . In 1961 he sang Ford in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff alongside Louis Quilico in the lead role on a CBC television program . He made his debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1959 , and in 1962 sang with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein at the opening of the Lincoln Center Concert Hall . From 1964 to 1967 he was engaged at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where he appeared in leading roles in operas by Mozart , Wagner and Gounod .

In addition to the traditional opera and oratorio repertoire, Bell was particularly committed to contemporary music. He sang in 1969 the title role of Luigi Dallapiccola's Ulisse in the English premiere of the BBC , was in 1973 the Alfred in the premiere of Gottfried von Einem's The Visit of the Old Lady at the Glyndebourne Festival and in 1974 the Catiline in the premiere of Iain Hamilton The Catiline Conspiracy to the Scottish Opera . Under the direction of the composer, he appeared in Hans Werner Henze's The Charge in 1974 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra , and in the same year with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in R. Murray Schafer's cantata Brébeuf . In 1976 he recorded Maxwell Davies ' Eight Songs for a Mad King for Dutch radio .

In 1976 Bell returned to Canada and in 1976 became a community artist at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa . At the 1977 Guelph Spring Festival , he was the Prince in the premiere of Derek Healey's Seabird Island , and in the same year the First Soldier in Harry Somers ' Death of Enkidu . In 1983 he appeared in a COMUS Music Theater production of Schafers Ra and a performance by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra of Gregory Levins Spiral Staircase , in 1988 in Louis Applebaum's Inunit and Robert Fleming's Our Mind Was the Singer and the premiere of Quenten Doolittles Hornby Songs with the Calgary New Music Society .

From 1982 Bell taught singing at the University of Calgary , where he received a professorship in 1991. Since the early 1990s, he has also given master classes on a regular basis and has acted as a juror at music festivals and competitions. He ended his active career as a singer in 1994 and teaching at the university in 2004.

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personal data
SURNAME Bell, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bell, Donald Munro (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian opera singer (bass baritone) and vocal teacher
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH South Burnaby