Norman Treigle

Norman Treigle (né Adanelle Wilfred Treigle, on 6 March 1927 - died 16 February 1975) was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror.

Biography

Treigle was born in New Orleans, the fifth and final child of a poor carpenter and his wife. Following his 1946 marriage to the former Loraine Siegel, the bass-baritone began vocal studies with the contralto Elisabeth Wood. In 1947, he made his operatic debut with the New Orleans Opera Association, as the Duke of Verona in Roméo et Juliette.

Between 1949 and 1951, he attended Loyola University of the South's College of Music, while performing various roles with the local opera company.

In 1953, Treigle made his New York City Opera debut, as Colline in La bohème. Three years later, the bass-baritone scored his first significant success, as the tormented Reverend Olin Blitch, in the New York premiere of Floyd's Susannah. He made his European debut in this same opera, at the Brussels World's Fair, in 1958.

In succeeding seasons, Treigle became one of the top bass-baritones in North America, and was acclaimed as one of the world's foremost singing-actors. He sang in many experimental productions and participated in several important premieres, in operas by Einem, Copland, Moore, Floyd, Orff, Dallapiccola and Ward (The Crucible). Perhaps his greatest roles were in Faust (as Méphistophélès), Carmen (as Escamillo), Susannah, Il prigioniero, Les contes d'Hoffmann (the four Villains), Boris Godunov and, especially, Mefistofele.

Strange Child of Chaos: Norman Treigle.

In the autumn of 1974, Treigle made his London debut at Covent Garden in a new production of Faust. On February 16, 1975, Treigle was found dead in his New Orleans apartment. He had been diagnosed as a chronic insomniac and it was determined that he had consumed an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. By his first wife, he had a son (who died in 1993) and a daughter, Phyllis. He had also adopted the daughter of his second wife, from whom he was separated at the time of his death.

Phyllis Treigle is a soprano who appeared with the New Orleans Opera and the New York City Opera.

Selected Discography of Studio Recordings

• Copland: The Tender Land: abridged (Clements, Cassilly, Fredricks; Copland, 1965) Columbia Records
• Handel: Giulio Cesare (Sills, Forrester; Rudel, 1967) RCA
• Floyd: Pilgrimage: excerpts (Torkanowsky, 1971) Orion
• Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann (Sills, Marsee, Burrows; Rudel, 1972) Westminster (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Boito: Mefistofele (Caballé, Domingo; Rudel, 1973) EMI

Selected Approved "Live" Recordings

• Puccini: La bohème (Albanese, Schuh, di Stefano, Valdengo; Cellini, 1959) VAI
• Floyd: Susannah (Curtin, Cassilly; Andersson, 1962) VAI
• Floyd: The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (Neway; Rudel, 1963) VAI
• Floyd: Markheim (Schuh; Andersson, 1966) VAI
• Handel: Giulio Cesare: excerpts (Sills; Richter, 1968) VAI

Commercial Videography

• Floyd: Susannah: Revival Scene (Yestadt, Treigle, 1958) [live] Bel Canto Society

Bibliography

• Strange Child of Chaos: Norman Treigle, by Brian Morgan, iUniverse, 2006. ISBN 0-595-38898-1

Trivia

• A fragment of the Treigle voice is heard in the 2005 Warner Bros. film, Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan. The young Bruce Wayne and his parents are seen attending a performance of Mefistofele in Gotham City, and the recording used is EMI's 1973 set.

External links

• "Norman Treigle Remembered" (1997).
• Norman Treigle in an excerpt from Susannah (1958).
• Norman Treigle in excerpts from Mefistofele (1968, audio only).
• Norman Treigle in Le coq d'or (1971).

Persondata
Name	Treigle, Norman
Alternative names	Treigle, Adanelle
Short description	Operatic bass-baritone
Date of birth	6 March 1927
Place of birth	New Orleans
Date of death	16 February 1975
Place of death	New Orleans