John Macurdy

John Macurdy (né McCurdy, in Detroit, Michigan, on March 18, 1929) is an esteemed American operatic bass. Among his teachers was the contralto Elisabeth Wood, who was also the pedagogue of Norman Treigle.

Macurdy made his formal debut with the New Orleans Opera Association on the opening night of the 1952-53 season, as the Old Hebrew in "Samson et Dalila", with Ramón Vinay and Blanche Thebom in the cast, which was conducted by Walter Herbert and staged by Wilhelm von Wymetal. He went on to appear with that company until 1959, in "Thaïs", "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (conducted by Julius Rudel), "The Consul" and "Norma". He was to return to New Orleans for Sarastro in "Die Zauberflöte", in 1979.

In 1959, Macurdy made his New York City Opera debut, as Dr Wilson in "Street Scene". Among his other roles there, until 1962, were Jabez Stone in "The Devil and Daniel Webster", the Basso Cantante in "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (world premiere, with Beverly Sills), William Jennings Bryan in "The Ballad of Baby Doe", Mr Earnshaw in "Wuthering Heights" (opposite Phyllis Curtin and Patricia Neway), Créon in "Œdipus rex" (conducted by Leopold Stokowski), Colline in "La bohème", Timur in "Turandot", President Prexy in "The Cradle Will Rock", a Priest in "Il prigioniero" (with Treigle), Sparafucile in "Rigoletto", Don Alfonso in "Così fan tutte", the King of Egypt (later Ramfis) in "Aïda", Reb Bashevi in "The Golem" (world premiere), and the Reverend John Hale in "The Crucible" (with Chester Ludgin). He made a return to that ensemble in 1979, for a single performance of Raimondo Bidebent in "Lucia di Lammermoor".

It was the Metropolitan Opera that would become the bass' artistic home, starting with Tom in "Un ballo in maschera", in 1962. From then, until 1997, Macurdy would sing more than 1000 performances, in a great variety of roles, including the King (later Ramfis) in "Aïda", Alessio (later Count Rodolfo) in "La sonnambula" (opposite Dame Joan Sutherland), Don Basilio in "Il barbiere di Siviglia", the Commendatore in "Don Giovanni" (perhaps his most acclaimed role), Ferrando in "Il trovatore", Prince Gremin in "Eugene Onegin", Colline, Count des Grieux in "Manon", Daland in "Der fliegende Holländer", Sparafucile, Agrippa in "Antony and Cleopatra" (world premiere), King Heinrich in "Lohengrin", Sarastro, Ezra Mannon in "Mourning Becomes Electra" (world premiere), Alvise Badoero in "La Gioconda", Hunding in "Die Walküre" (with Jon Vickers), Count Walter in "Luisa Miller" (with Montserrat Caballé), Timur, Raimondo (to Renata Scotto's Lucia), the Grand Inquisitor in "Don Carlos" (with Franco Corelli), Titurel (later Gurnemanz) in "Parsifal", King Marke in "Tristan und Isolde", Rocco in "Fidelio" (with Anja Silja in her Met debut), Méphistophélès in "Faust", Pimenn in "Boris Godounov", Oroveso in "Norma", and Tirésias in "Œdipus rex" (in John Dexter's production). In the year 2000, he returned to the Met, for Hagen in "Götterdämmerung", under James Levine.

Macurdy has also appeared at the Paris Opéra (Arkel in "Pelléas et Mélisande", 1973), Teatro alla Scala (Rocco in "Fidelio", 1974), Teatro Colón and Salzburg Festival. In 1978, he portrayed the Commendatore in Joseph Losey's famous film of "Don Giovanni", with Ruggero Raimondi, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Teresa Berganza, Edda Moser, Malcolm King, Kenneth Riegel and José van Dam, conducted by Lorin Maazel.

Commercial discography

* Ward: "The Crucible" (Ludgin; Buckley, 1962) CRI
* Beethoven: Ninth Symphony (Ormandy, p.1966) CBS/Sony
* Mozart: "Don Giovanni" (Milnes; Böhm, 1977) [live] Deutsche Grammophon
* Mozart: "Don Giovanni" (Raimondi; Maazel, 1978) CBS/Sony
* Verdi: "Otello" (Ricciarelli, Domingo, Díaz; Maazel, 1985) EMI

Commercial videography

* Mozart: "Don Giovanni" (Raimondi; Maazel, Losey, 1978)
* Wagner: "Tannhäuser" (Cassilly; Levine, Schenk/Berkowitz, 1982) [live]
* Wagner: "Lohengrin" (Hofmann; Levine, Everding, 1986) [live]

References

* "The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia", edited by David Hamilton, Simon and Schuster, 1987. ISBN 0-671-61732-X

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hf9z0qoE50] YouTube: John Macurdy in an excerpt from "Don Giovanni" (1978).