Richard Cassilly

Richard Cassilly (born December 14, 1927, Washington, DC – died January 30, 1998, Boston) was one of his generation's leading tenors.

He matriculated at the Peabody Conservatory, and also studied under Rosa Ponselle. Cassilly made his operatic debut on Broadway, in "The Saint of Bleecker Street", in 1955. The following year, he first sang with the New York City Opera, where he often appeared until 1966. A highlight of these years was the "professional" American premiere of "Il prigioniero", with Norman Treigle and Leopold Stokowski, in 1960.

Cassilly first sang in Europe in 1958, in "Susannah", at the Brussels World's Fair. In 1965, he returned to the Continent, singing in Geneva. That same year, he joined the Hamburg Staatsoper, where he was to become a fixture. In fact, he appeared in a 1968 Hamburg film of "Fidelio", opposite Anja Silja. He was also seen at Berlin Deutsche Oper, London Covent Garden, Vienna, Milan Teatro alla Scala and Paris.

In 1973, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut, as Radamès in "Aïda". He was to appear in many productions at that theatre until 1990, including "Tannhäuser", "Otello", "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" (with Teresa Stratas and Astrid Varnay), "Elektra", "Wozzeck", "Billy Budd", "Pagliacci", "Tristan und Isolde", "Salome", "Œdipus rex" (in John Dexter's production), and "Peter Grimes".

His recordings include "The Tenor" (with Chester Ludgin, 1958), "Les troyens" (with Eleanor Steber and Regina Resnik, 1960), "Susannah" (with Phyllis Curtin and Treigle, 1962), "La forza del destino" (excerpts, with Eileen Farrell, 1963), "The Tender Land" (with Joy Clements, abridged, conducted by the composer, Aaron Copland, 1965), "Salome" (with Dame Gwyneth Jones, conducted by Karl Böhm, 1970), "Moses und Aron" (conducted by Pierre Boulez, 1974), "Leonore" (with Edda Moser, 1976) and "Troilus and Cressida" (with Dame Janet Baker, 1976). Perhaps more importantly, his 1982 "Tannhäuser" from the Met, as well as the "Fidelio" film from Hamburg, have been issued on DVD.

In 1986, the "Kammersänger" had begun teaching Voice at Boston University. At the time of his death he was married to Metropolitan Opera soprano Patricia Craig.

References

* "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera", by John Warrack & Ewan West, Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-280028-0

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_WiwD-NuCI] YouTube: Richard Cassilly in an excerpt from "Tannhäuser", with Bernd Weikl and John Macurdy (1982).