Robert Rounseville

Robert Rounseville (1914-1974) was an American tenor, who appeared in opera, operetta, and Broadway musicals. He also appeared in two films. He is perhaps best known to opera buffs for starring in the role of Hoffmann in Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's film of Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951), the first color film of an opera to use genuinely cinematic techniques (as opposed to filming a performance on stage). That same year, he was also the first Tom Rakewell, in the world premiere of Igor Stravinsky's opera "The Rake's Progress", onstage at La Fenice. He was fortunate to have as his co-stars Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Jennie Tourel.

In 1956, Rounseville played both his best remembered screen role and one of his most memorable stage roles. In the film "Carousel", an adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, he portrayed the snobbish fisherman Mr. Snow, opposite Barbara Ruick as Carrie Pipperidge. In December of that year, he opened on Broadway in the original production of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide", playing the title role opposite Barbara Cook as Cunegonde.

In 1960, he appeared in the role of Nanki-Poo in a "Bell Telephone Hour" television abridgement of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "The Mikado", starring Groucho Marx as Ko-Ko, the executioner. He was also an occasional guest star on the musical series "The Voice of Firestone".

In 1969, he starred on National Educational Television in the American premiere of Leos Janacek's last opera "From the House of the Dead", based on Dostoyevsky's novel.

Rounseville also made a few studio cast recordings of Broadway shows. Among them was a 1952 mono LP - the most complete one made up to that time - of Sigmund Romberg's operetta "The Student Prince", in which he starred with Dorothy Kirsten. It went out of print for a very long while, but has since been reissued on CD.

Most frequently, Rounseville appeared in modest revivals of operettas and musicals at the New York City Center, in shows such as "Brigadoon" (as Charlie Dalrymple) and "Show Boat" (as Gaylord Ravenal). But in 1965, he returned in a major Broadway production, when he appeared as the priest in the original stage version of "Man of La Mancha".

Rounseville died quite suddenly only nine years later. "Theatre World" reported that he collapsed from a heart attack while teaching a singing class.