Loren Driscoll
Loren Driscoll (April 14, 1928 – April 8, 2008) was an American tenor who had an active international career from the 1950s through the mid-1980s. Driscoll was particularly noted for his performances in contemporary operas and sang in many world premieres.
Biography
Driscoll was born in
Wuthering Heights (1958) and Hermann in the United States premiere of Paul Hindemith's Neues vom Tage (1961). In 1962 Driscoll became a principal singer with the Deutsche Oper Berlin and remained based with company for the next 25 years, while also singing at the Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne, and several other European and North American opera houses.[1] His great performance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Lord Barrat in the opera Der junge Lord
by Hans Werner Henze (1965) awarded him the honorary title of "Kammersänger".
He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1966 as David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, a role he sang 23 times with the company between 1966 and 1972. He also appeared at the Met as Alfred in their 1967 production of Die Fledermaus.[2]
In the 1950s Driscoll also sang in several
Broadway musicals: as the Imam of the Mosque/The Bangle Man in Kismet, Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady, and Jerry Devine in the premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Juno (1959).[3] Also for Blitzstein, Driscoll performed the role of Leo Hubbard in the composer's Regina with the New York City Opera in 1958, and appears on the recording of that production. Also on record, he can be heard singing in English language performances of Stravinsky's Renard the Fox and The Wedding (the recording of which features Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and Roger Sessions
playing the four pianos). Both recordings were conducted by Stravinsky himself.
Driscoll died in Berlin, on April 8, 2008.[4]
Opera roles created
Roles created by Loren Driscoll include:
- Shridaman in Phoenix Theatre, New York City, 1958)
- Edgar Linton in Wuthering Heights (Santa Fe Opera, 1958)
- Pedro de Alvarado in Roger Sessions' Montezuma (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1964)
- Lord Barrett in Hans Werner Henze's Der junge Lord (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1965)
- Dionysos in Henze's The Bassarids (Salzburg Festival, 1966).
- Eumaeus in Luigi Dallapiccola's Ulisse (Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1968)
- The Architect in Aribert Reimann's Melusine (Schwetzingen Festival, 1971)
- First Officer in Wilhelm Dieter Siebert's Der Untergang der Titanic (The Sinking of the Titanic) (Deutsche Oper Berlin 1979).[5]
References
- ^ Cummings (2003) p. 206
- ^ Metropolitan Opera
- ^ Loren Driscoll at the Internet Broadway Database. See also Time Magazine (23 March 1959)
- ^ "Celebrity Death Date by First Name". AbsoluteNow.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
- ^ Driscoll also wrote the English version of the original German libretto. See Boosey & Hawkes
Sources
- Boosey & Hawkes, Siebert, Wilhelm Dieter: Untergang der Titanic (1979)
- Cummings, David (ED.), "Driscoll, Loren", International Who's Who in Classical Music, Routledge, 2003, p. 206. ISBN 1-85743-174-X
- Metropolitan Opera, Performance record: Driscoll, Loren (Tenor), MetOpera Database
- Time Magazine, "The Theater: New Musical on Broadway", 23 March 1959
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