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Gregory Stapp is an American bass who has performed actively in concerts and operas internationally for more than 35 years. He has had a particularly fruitful partnership with the San Francisco Opera, portraying more than 30 roles with the company since 1980. [1] He has also worked actively as a private voice teacher and as a teacher of master classes at a number of universities. He is the current Second Vice President of the American Guild of Musical Artists. [2]
Born and raised in Colorado, Stapp attended Doull Elementary School, Kunsmiller Junior High School, and Cherry Creek High School in Denver. He earned a Bachelor of Music from Loretto Heights College in 1976 where was a pupil of George Lynn, the former music director of Westminster Choir College. He pursued further studies in opera at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia from 1976-1980. He studied with Dorothy DiScala at the school and earned an Artist’s Diploma in 1980. [2] In the summer of 1979 he pursued graduate work at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington where he was a student of longtime Metropolitan Opera star Margaret Harshaw and also worked as a Graduate Assistant in voice. He also studied singing with Janet Parlova, Jerome Hines and Judith Natalucci. [3]
While at the AVA, Stapp appeared in 15 student opera productions, including portraying the part of Charlemagne in the United States premiere of Franz Schubert's Fierrabras at the Walnut Street Theatre on May 11, 1980. [4] He was also active with professional musical organizations in Philadelphia. He made his first appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra in July 1978 as Il Tio Sarvaor in Manuel de Falla's La vida breve with Enriqueta Tarrés as Salud and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting. That summer, he made his concert debut with the Opera Company of Philadelphia; and that November, he made his OCP stage debut as Il conte di Ceprano in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto with Sherrill Milnes in the title role, June Anderson as Gilda, and conductor Gerhard Samuel.
In fall 1980 Stapp joined the San Francisco Opera's San Francisco/Affiliate Artists-Opera Program, making his stage debut with the company as the Second Armored Man in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute . After a series of smaller roles with the company, he portrayed his first larger role with the SFO, Raimondo in Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in November 1981. He continued to perform periodically with the company up through 2005, appearing in such parts as Achillas in Giulio Cesare , Brander in La Damnation de Faust , Dansker in Billy Budd , Friar Lawrence in Roméo et Juliette , Lodovico in Otello , the Parson in The Cunning Little Vixen , Pluto in Il ballo delle ingrate , and the Priest in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District among others. [1] Fifteen of his performances with the SFO were broadcast nationally on NPR. [3]
Stapp has also sung roles with more than 60 other opera companies in the United States. [2] In June 1983 he performed the role of Totor in the world premiere of Frederick Delius's Margot la Rouge at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. [5] He made his debut at the New York City Opera in November 1983 as Nourabad in Georges Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles with Jon Garrison as Nadir. [6] He later returned to the NYCO to portray Sarastro in The Magic Flute in 1987, a performance which was broadcast nationally on PBS's Great Performances . [7] On November 15, 1986 he performed the role of Emperor Altoum in the United States premiere of Ferruccio Busoni's Turandot at the Connecticut Grand Opera with Patricia Craig in the title role. [8] In 1993 he portrayed John MacKay in the world premiere of Bern Herbolsheimer's Mark me Twain at the Nevada Opera.
Stapp remains active as a performer and teacher; a notable student being baritone Stephen Dickson. He taught voice, conducting and music history at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California (where he conducted Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro) until 2015, when he moved his private vocal studio to Monument, Colorado. [9]
The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California.
Doktor Faust is an opera by Ferruccio Busoni with a German libretto by the composer, based on the myth of Faust. Busoni worked on the opera, which he intended as his masterpiece, between 1916 and 1924, but it was still incomplete at the time of his death. His pupil Philipp Jarnach finished it. More recently, in 1982, Antony Beaumont completed the opera using sketches by Busoni that were previously thought to have been lost. Nancy Chamness published an analysis of the libretto to Doktor Faust and a comparison with Goethe's version.
John Alexander was an American operatic tenor who had a substantial career during the 1950s through the 1980s. He had a longstanding relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing with that company every year between 1961 and 1987 for a total of 379 performances. He also periodically performed at the New York City Opera during his career and was a frequent presence at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company during the late 1950s and 1960s. Although he spent most of his career in New York City, Alexander occasionally traveled to perform as a guest artist with many of the world's leading opera houses, both in the United States and Europe. He was also an active concert singer throughout his career.
Frank Guarrera was an Italian-American lyric baritone who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera, singing with the company for a total of 680 performances. He performed 35 different roles at the Met, mostly from the Italian and French repertories, from 1948 through 1976. His most frequent assignments at the house were as Escamillo in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Marcello in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, Valentin in Charles Gounod's Faust, and Ping in Puccini's Turandot. He was also an admired interpreter of Mozart roles, establishing himself in the parts of both Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. Most of the roles he portrayed were from the lyric repertoire, such as the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, but he also sang some heavier roles at the Met like Amonasro in Aïda, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West and Il conte di Luna in Il trovatore.
Turandot(BV 273) is a 1917 opera with spoken dialogue and in two acts by Ferruccio Busoni. Busoni prepared his own libretto, in German, based on the play of the same name by Count Carlo Gozzi. The music for Busoni's opera is based on the incidental music, and the associated Turandot Suite, which Busoni had written in 1905 for a production of Gozzi's play. The opera is often performed as part of a double bill with Busoni's earlier one-act opera Arlecchino.
Clamma Churita Dale is an American operatic soprano. She portrayed "Bess" in the highly successful 1976 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess. The show was transferred from Houston to Broadway and Dale was awarded a 1977 Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a musical and received a Tony Award nomination. She won a Grammy award in 1978 for Best Opera Recording of the Porgy & Bess soundtrack.
Daniel Belcher is an American operatic baritone who has sung at many of the world's leading opera houses. He notably portrayed the role of John Brooke in the world premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women and played the role of Andy Warhol in the premiere of Michael Daugherty's Jackie O, both with the Houston Grand Opera (HGO). He is particularly admired for his portrayal of Rossini heroes with Dandini in La Cenerentola and Figaro in The Barber of Seville being two of his signature roles.
Richard Cross is an American bass-baritone who had an active international opera career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. Possessing a rich and warm voice, Cross sang a broad repertoire that encompassed works from a wide variety of musical periods and styles. He currently teaches on the voice faculties of the Yale School of Music, the Juilliard School, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Margaret Harshaw was an American opera singer and voice teacher who sang for 22 consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan Opera from November 1942 to March 1964. She began her career as a mezzo-soprano in the early 1930s but then began performing roles from the soprano repertoire in 1950. She sang a total of 39 roles in 25 works at the Met and was heard in 40 of the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. She was also active as a guest artist with major opera houses in Europe and North and South America.
Stephen Dickson was an American baritone who had an active career in operas and concerts from 1972 through 1990. He was active with the United States's most important opera companies during the 1980s, sharing the stage with many notable singers like Luciano Pavarotti, Jessye Norman, and Renata Scotto. He was particularly admired for his portrayal of Papageno in The Magic Flute, a role he sang throughout Europe and the United States. At the time of his premature death, Dickson had just reached the pinnacle of his career, having only recently gained a more substantial role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and with major European opera houses like the Royal Opera, London and the Bavarian State Opera among others.
William Brown was an American operatic tenor, a founding member of the Center for Black Music Repertory Ensemble and a Distinguished Professor of Voice at the University of North Florida.
John Harger Stewart is an American tenor, conductor, and voice teacher who had an active international singing career in concerts and operas from 1964 to 1990. He began his career singing regularly with the Santa Fe Opera from the mid-1960s through the early 1970s; after which he appeared only periodically in Santa Fe up through the mid-1980s. He was particularly active with the New York City Opera during the 1970s and 1980s, and with the Frankfurt Opera from the mid-1970s through 1990. He also appeared as a guest artist with several other important American opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera and the Washington National Opera, and at other European opera houses like the De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland, and the Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland. Now retired from singing, he is currently the Director of Vocal Activities at Washington University in St. Louis where he also teaches singing and conducts student opera productions and choirs. He also serves as the opera conductor at the Johanna Meier Opera Theater Institute at Black Hills State University.
Herbert Wilson Beattie was an American operatic bass and voice teacher.
Carol Toscano is an American operatic soprano who appeared frequently with a number of prominent American opera companies from 1962 to 1972. Afterwards she continued to perform in concerts and operas with less frequency. More recently she has appeared as a concert singer of works from the Great American Songbook. In her early career she won several prominent singing competitions.
Mallory Elton Walker was an American operatic tenor and music educator who had an active international singing career in operas and concerts from the late 1950s until his death in 2014. His career was at its height during the 1960s and 1970s when he was busy with many important opera companies in the United States and had engagements in European opera houses. His career hit a slump in the early 1980s due to vocal difficulties, and afterwards his major engagements became less frequent. He taught on the voice faculty at the Boston Conservatory of Music and out of a private voice studio in Los Angeles.
Tom Fox is an American operatic baritone who has had an active international performance career that has spanned five decades. He has sung leading roles at many of the world's major opera houses, including the Berlin State Opera, La Scala, and the Metropolitan Opera. While he has performed a diverse range of roles in numerous languages during his career, he has become particularly associated with the works of Richard Wagner.
Kathryn Day is an American opera singer who has had an active international career spanning five decades. She began her career as a leading soprano under the name Kathryn Bouleyn in the 1970s and 1980s with companies like the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. With the latter institution she created the role of Cora in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' The Postman Always Rings Twice (1982).
Tonio di Paolo is an American opera singer. He began his career in the 1970s as a baritone but since the late 1970s has portrayed roles as a leading tenor. His performance credits include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Hamburg State Opera among other companies. He has created roles in the world premieres of operas by composers Samuel Adler, David Carlson, John Harbison, and Augusta Read Thomas. He retired from the stage in 2010.
Andrea Velis was an American operatic tenor who had a lengthy association with the Metropolitan Opera that spanned 33 seasons. Considered a highly skilled character actor, he excelled in supporting roles, often to great comedic effect. His voice is preserved on several recordings made for Live from the Metropolitan Opera and the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.
Sheri Greenawald is an American soprano and music educator who had an active performance career in concerts and operas during the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century. She has portrayed principal roles in the world premieres of several operas, including works by composers Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Catán, Carlisle Floyd, Thomas Pasatieri, and Stephen Paulus. She has performed leading roles with opera companies in the US and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Bavarian State Opera, La Fenice, and Paris Opera. She was particularly active as a performer with the Santa Fe Opera and San Francisco Opera. A former member of the voice faculty at the Boston Conservatory, she served as director of the San Francisco Opera Center from 2002 through 2020.