Michael Trimble

Last updated

Michael Trimble (sometimes spelled Michael Trimbel) (March 15, 1938, Texarkana, Texas [1] ) is an American operatic tenor, voice teacher, and writer on music. He had an active international career singing leading roles with opera houses during the 1960s and 1970s. His singing career was cut short due to health concerns, and he has since had an active career as a voice teacher both privately and at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Several of his students have had successful international opera careers, including Metropolitan Opera star Tonio di Paolo and soprano Beverly Hoch.

Life and career

Trimble earned a bachelor's degree in music from Southern Methodist University where he was a pupil of Mack Harrell. In 1962 he made his professional debut at the Dallas Opera as Roderigo in Otello with Mario Del Monaco in the title role. [2] In 1963 he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. [3] In 1964 he portrayed Edgardo in nationally broadcast production of Lucia di Lammermoor with the NBC Opera Theatre. [4] He made his European debut soon after as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca with the Teatro Nuovo in Milan. [5]

In the 1960s and early 1970s Trimble was highly active singing leading roles with several German, Austrian, and Swiss opera houses, including the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Bern Theatre, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, and the Vienna Volksoper among others. [6] He made his debut with the Canadian Opera Company in 1971 as Pinkerton to Maria Pellegrini's Cio-Cio-San under conductor Alfred Strombergs. [7] In 1974 he made his debut at the Opera Company of Boston as Toby Higgins in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny under conductor Sarah Caldwell. [8]

Related Research Articles

Rose Bampton American opera singer

Rose Bampton was a celebrated American opera singer who had an active international career during the 1930s and 1940s. She began her professional career performing mostly minor roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire in 1929 but later switched to singing primarily leading soprano roles in 1937 until her retirement from the opera stage in 1963.

Carmen Melis

Carmen Melis was an Italian operatic soprano who had a major international career during the first four decades of the 20th century. She was known, above all, as a verismo soprano, and was one of the most interesting singing actresses of the early 20th century. She made her debut in Novara in 1905 and her career rapidly developed in her native country over the next four years. From 1909 to 1916 she performed with important opera companies in the United States; after which she was busy performing at many of Europe's most important opera houses. From 1917 until her retirement from the stage in 1935 she was particularly active at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome and at La Scala in Milan. After her singing career ended, she embarked on a second career as a voice teacher. Her most notable student was soprano Renata Tebaldi.

Nicola Rescigno

Nicola Rescigno was an Italian-American conductor, particularly associated with the Italian opera repertory. Opera News said that "Rescigno was a seminal figure in the history of opera in America, a maestro and mentor who shaped the destiny and reputation of two major U.S. companies — Lyric Opera of Chicago and Dallas Opera — as well as countless singing and conducting careers. Vigorous musical integrity, idiomatic style and unfailing support of his singers were the hallmarks of his performances throughout his distinguished career, which lasted more than fifty years."

Melba Ramos is a Puerto Rican- born soprano active in the opera houses and concert halls of Europe. Since 1989 her operatic career has been primarily in Germany and in Austria where she has sung many leading roles at the Vienna Volksoper. In 2002, she created the role of Faustina in the posthumous premiere of Joachim Raff's Benedetto Marcello.

John Alexander (tenor) American operatic singer

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.

Enrico Di Giuseppe American tenor

Enrico Di Giuseppe was a celebrated American operatic tenor who had an active performance career from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He spent most of his career performing in New York City, juggling concurrent performance contracts with both the New York City Opera (NYCO) and the Metropolitan Opera during the 1970s and 1980s. In the latter part of his career he was particularly active with the New York Grand Opera.

Frank Guarrera American operatic singer

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.

Michael Maniaci is an American opera singer. Possessing a male soprano voice, Maniaci is noted for his claim to be able to sing into the upper soprano range without resorting to falsetto, an otherwise common phonation for men who sing in high registers, such as countertenors. Although this was possible for castrati because of the hormonal imbalance following castration, Maniaci claims that, for some unknown reason, his larynx did not develop and lengthen completely during puberty, causing his voice not to "break" in the usual manner. Maniaci claims that this physical particularity has given him the ability to sing in the soprano register without sounding like a typical countertenor or a female singer. There are, however, critics who claim that Maniaci actually sings in falsetto.

Thomas Hayward (tenor) American operatic tenor

Thomas T. Hayward was an American operatic tenor. He was a cousin of opera singer Lawrence Tibbett.

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.

Mildred Allen was an American operatic soprano who had an active career during the 1950s and 1960s. She notably was a regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera between 1957 and 1962. She later became a member of the voice faculty at Birmingham-Southern College where she taught from 1987–2009.

Adelaide Bishop

Adelaide Bishop was an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, opera director, stage director, and voice teacher. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals as a teenager during the early 1940s. She became a principal soprano with the New York City Opera (NYCO) in 1948, where she performed through 1960 in a broad repertoire encompassing German, French, Italian, and English operas from a variety of musical periods. In the late 1950s, she started working actively as a stage director and as a voice teacher, working with many opera companies throughout the United States and serving on the music faculties of several different American universities. She also served as the artistic director of the Wolf Trap Opera for many years.

Eunice Alberts (1927–2012) was an American contralto who had an active career as a concert soloist and opera singer during the 1950s through the 1980s.

Donald John Gramm was an American bass-baritone whose career was divided between opera and concert performances. His appearances were primarily limited to the United States, which at the time was unusual for an American singer. John Rockwell of The New York Times described Gramm as follows: "He had an unusually rich, noble tone, and although its volume may not have been large, it penetrated even the biggest theaters easily. Technically, he could handle bel-canto ornamentation fluently. But his real strengths lay in his aristocratic musicianship and his instinctive acting." Among the most notable of his many operatic roles were the title role in Verdi's Falstaff, Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Dr. Schön and Jack the Ripper in Berg's Lulu.

Michael Fabiano American operatic tenor

Michael Fabiano is an American operatic tenor. Born in Montclair, New Jersey, he has performed in leading opera houses throughout the world, including the San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Sydney Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Canadian Opera Company, The Royal Opera, and Teatro Real de Madrid among many others. Fabiano is the 2014 Richard Tucker Award winner and the 2014 Beverly Sills Artist Award winner, making him the first singer to win both awards in the same year.

Kevin Short is an American operatic bass-baritone. A graduate of Morgan State University, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Juilliard School, he won the bass-baritone award for the Middle Atlantic region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1989. From 1991 to 1998 he appeared annually at the Metropolitan Opera, singing in a total of 129 performances. He notably created the role of Joseph in the world premiere of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles in 1991. Some of the other roles he has performed at the Met are Colline in La Bohème, the Friar in Don Carlos, Happy in La fanciulla del West, the Jailer in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Lackey in Ariadne auf Naxos, Mandarin in Turandot, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Sciarrone in Tosca, Pirro in I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, and Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin. He also sang several roles with the New York City Opera during the 1980s and 1990s, including Nourabad in The Pearl Fishers and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Wendy White is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international singing career in operas and concerts since the late 1970s. She has performed annually with the Metropolitan Opera since her debut with the company in 1989, and as of April 2011 has appeared in a total of 499 performances at the Met.

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.

Beverly Hoch is an American coloratura soprano and music educator who has had an active performance career in operas, concerts, and on recordings since the late 1970s. She has been teaching at Texas Woman's University since 2007.

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.

References

  1. ↑ William H. Trent (1989). Treasured poems of America. Sparrowgrass Poetry Forum. p. 298. ISBN   9780923242015.
  2. ↑ "World Reports". Opera : 24. February 1963.
  3. ↑ "3 Finalists of Met Auditions To Have Grants and Recital". The New York Times . May 30, 1964.
  4. ↑ "NBC Opera: Lucia". Saturday Review . 47: 24.
  5. ↑ "Michael Trimble". operafocus.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Michael Trimble". Musical America . Billboard Publications: 131. 1972.
  7. ↑ Ezra Schabas (2000). Opera Viva: The Canadian Opera Company The First Fifty Years. Dundum Press. p. 254. ISBN   9781770700970.
  8. ↑ Daniel Kessler (2008). "Sarah Caldwell: The First Woman of Opera". Scarecrow Press. p. 228. ISBN   9780810863682.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.