Metropolitan Opera

WAYNE, Pa. -- Rose Bampton, a soprano who performed 18 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera and established herself as a premier voice in American opera, died Tuesday in Bryn Mawr. She was 99. Ms. Bampton, who made her professional debut in 1929, appeared several times with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra and sang with such opera immortals as Lauritz Melchior, Helen Traubel, Rosa Ponselle, Jan Peerce, and Ezio Pinza. She recorded with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony, and a broadcast version of their "Fidelio" remains in print.

La Scala opera house says soprano Natalie Dessay has been forced to cancel her appearances in the opera ''Manon" for health reasons. Dessay was due to appear in the role of Manon Lescaut for seven performances starting June 19. She will be replaced by Anna Netrebko and Ermonela Jaho. The 47-year-old Dessay needed a relief soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in New York after struggling through the first act of Verdi's ''La Traviata" in April. The Met at the time said she was bothered by a cold that had caused her to miss the opening.

NEW YORK - Paul Franke, a tenor who was one of the most stalwart, ubiquitous, and enduring performers at the Metropolitan Opera, appearing there nearly 2,000 times in four decades, died July 21 at his home in Queens. He was 93. His family confirmed the death. Mr. Franke was a comprimario, a character actor of the operatic world. The term, from the Italian "con primario" ("with the primary"), describes a singer who specializes in secondary roles. The life of a comprimario has its compensations.

NEW YORK - Herbert Breslin, the hard-driving manager who helped propel opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti to global fame during the 36 years they worked together, died Wednesday in Nice, France, apparently of a heart attack, said his wife, Carol. He was 87. Under Mr. Breslin's guidance, Mr. Pavarotti moved beyond opera houses to become an entertainment celebrity who performed at arenas, stadiums, and even in Las Vegas. The rotund singer also appeared on television shows and in an American Express commercial.

They met late one October afternoon in 2011 in the lobby of the Westin Copley Place Hotel. Randolph Fuller, the millionaire opera aficionado who helped found Opera Boston in 2003, wanted to tell Jim Marko, only six weeks in as development director, that the company was being led on a doomed path. Fuller's target: General director Lesley Koenig, the former Metropolitan Opera staffer just 9 months into her job. She was "incompetent," Fuller steamed, and he would have nothing to do with her. Marko felt shaken.

FORT WORTH — William Walker, a baritone whose career ranged from the State Fair of Texas to more than 350 performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, died Saturday. He was 78. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office said Mr. Walker died in Fort Worth. The coroner did not provide a cause of death, but the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Mr. Walker had been diagnosed with cancer several years ago. Darren K. Woods, the current general director of the Fort Worth Opera, said Mr. Walker “was a true Southern gentleman with a bigger-than-life personality...

James Levine 's health is apparently not improving much. Levine, whose chronic health problems forced him to step down as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is canceling yet more performances at the Metropolitan Opera. The Met said yesterday that Fabio Luisi will replace Levine in a new production of Wagner 's "Goetterdaemmerung. " The 67-year-old Levine has not conducted since May 14.

When Opera Boston announced just before Christmas that it was ceasing operations, the city's supply of fully staged opera was rather abruptly slashed. Opera Boston had, in its eight-year run, fed the city's appetite for novelty and rarity, putting on operas both new and old that had infrequently, if ever, been seen or heard here. The company's dissolution had its own specific pathology, of course: slow fund-raising in a down economy, maybe, or a fractured board. But in the wake of its unexpected collapse, one familiar theme emerged: Speaking...

La Scala opera house says soprano Natalie Dessay has been forced to cancel her appearances in the opera ''Manon" for health reasons. Dessay was due to appear in the role of Manon Lescaut for seven performances starting June 19. She will be replaced by Anna Netrebko and Ermonela Jaho. The 47-year-old Dessay needed a relief soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in New York after struggling through the first act of Verdi's ''La Traviata" in April. The Met at the time said she was bothered by a cold that had caused her to miss the opening.

INDIANAPOLIS - Camilla Williams, believed to be the first African-American woman to appear with a major US opera company, has died. She was 92. Ms. Williams died Sunday at her home in Bloomington, her attorney, Eric Slotegraaf, said yesterday. She died of complications from cancer, said Alain Barker, a spokesman for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Ms. Williams was a professor emeritus of voice. Ms. Williams's debut with the New York City Opera on May 15, 1946, was thought to make her the first African-American woman to appear with a...

Absent from the Metropolitan Opera for 15 years, Benjamin Britten's great maritime tragedy "Billy Budd" has made a brief but welcome return in the season's closing days. If the lead singers were a variable lot at Friday's premiere, the night was still a success because the real stars of the show — the conductor, the chorus and the set — all performed magnificently. That set, designed by William Dudley for the 1978 John Dexter production, is a cutaway depiction against a black background of the H.M.S.

Director Peter Sellars has won a special award along with four of the world's best singers. On Sunday, the prestigious Opera News Awards went to the American theater whiz, and to Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, German soprano Anja Silja, Swedish baritone Peter Mattei and Finnish soprano Karita Mattila. Sellars says he "took the starch out of the Bugs Bunny version of opera" — with productions like the wrenching story of how the nuclear bomb was created in composer John Adams' Grammy award-winning "Doctor Atomic.

Natalie Dessay needed a relief soprano at the Metropolitan Opera. After struggling through the first act of Verdi's "La Traviata" on Saturday night, Dessay was replaced by Hei-Kyung Hong for the final two acts. The 47-year-old Dessay cut short some notes, swallowed others and didn't attempt the unwritten E-flat often sung at the end of "Sempre libera. " The Met said Dessay was still bothered by the cold that caused her to miss the opening performance of the revival on April 6 and be replaced then by Hong.

NEW YORK - Singer Lili Chookasian, an American who in the 1960s and afterward was among the most prominent contraltos in the world, died Tuesday at her home in Branford, Conn. She was 90. Her family confirmed the death. Ms. Chookasian was a principal singer with the Metropolitan Opera for a quarter-century, appearing there 290 times from 1962 to 1986. She also sang in recital and was a soloist with many of the world's leading orchestras. Critics and operagoers hailed Ms. Chookasian as a "real contralto.

NEW YORK - Andrij Dobriansky, a bass who sang more than 900 performances with New York's Metropolitan Opera, died Feb. 1 in New York City. He was 81. The cause was complications of diabetes as well as a heart condition, according to his family, which did not make news of the death widely known until last week. Mr. Dobriansky, who performed mostly smaller roles at the Met, was a stalwart known for his large, resonant voice. He made his debut with the company in 1970, singing Happy in Puccini's "Fanciulla del West"; his last performance, in 1996, was as...

INDIANAPOLIS - Camilla Williams, believed to be the first African-American woman to appear with a major US opera company, has died. She was 92. Ms. Williams died Sunday at her home in Bloomington, her attorney, Eric Slotegraaf, said yesterday. She died of complications from cancer, said Alain Barker, a spokesman for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Ms. Williams was a professor emeritus of voice. Ms. Williams's debut with the New York City Opera on May 15, 1946, was thought to make her the first African-American woman to appear with a major US opera...

James Levine , former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will not be returning to work at the Metropolitan Opera any time soon. Levine, whose chronic health problems forced him to step down from the BSO, will miss the remainder of the Met's current season - and all of the 2012-13 season - to recover from the spinal injury he suffered last August. The Met announced yesterday that Levine's health has "greatly improved" in recent months, but he needs more time. "While this is a blow to Jim, our company, and his many fans, we want to make it possible for him to eventually return...

ATLANTA — Singer Cesare Siepi, who performed hundreds of times at the Metropolitan Opera and was well known for the role of Don Giovanni, died Monday. He was 87. Mr. Siepi, a native of Milan, died at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta after suffering a stroke more than a week earlier, his family said. Mr. Siepi’s distinctive bass helped make him a favorite in such roles as Mephistopheles in “Faust’’ as well as the title role in “Don Giovanni.’’ His Met career began in 1950 and ran until the early 1970s.

When Opera Boston announced just before Christmas that it was ceasing operations, the city's supply of fully staged opera was rather abruptly slashed. Opera Boston had, in its eight-year run, fed the city's appetite for novelty and rarity, putting on operas both new and old that had infrequently, if ever, been seen or heard here. The company's dissolution had its own specific pathology, of course: slow fund-raising in a down economy, maybe, or a fractured board. But in the wake of its unexpected collapse, one familiar theme emerged: Speaking of Boston, the company's former general director,...

They met late one October afternoon in 2011 in the lobby of the Westin Copley Place Hotel. Randolph Fuller, the millionaire opera aficionado who helped found Opera Boston in 2003, wanted to tell Jim Marko, only six weeks in as development director, that the company was being led on a doomed path. Fuller's target: General director Lesley Koenig, the former Metropolitan Opera staffer just 9 months into her job. She was "incompetent," Fuller steamed, and he would have nothing to do with her. Marko felt shaken.