Thomas Stewart (bass-baritone)
Thomas Stewart | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | September 24, 2006 | (aged 78)
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Bass-baritone |
Thomas Stewart (August 29, 1928 – September 24, 2006) was an American bass-baritone who sang an unusually wide range of roles, earning global acclaim particularly for his performances in Wagner's operas.
Thomas James Stewart was born in San Saba, Texas. He graduated from Baylor University in 1953 and then went to the Juilliard School, where he studied with Mack Harrell. An imposing six-footer, Stewart made his debut in 1954 as La Roche in the American premiere of Richard Strauss's Capriccio, going on to sing with the New York City Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago.
He married
A regular at the Bayreuth Festival for 13 years (1960–72), Stewart sang most of Wagner's heroic baritone roles, including Wotan/Wanderer and Gunther in the Ring Cycle, the Dutchman, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, and Amfortas in Parsifal. He sang the latter role for 13 consecutive Bayreuth seasons.
In 1967 Herbert von Karajan launched the Salzburg Easter Festival with a new staging of the Ring Cycle, casting Stewart as Wotan/Wanderer and Gunther during the festival’s first four seasons, and again as Wotan in a later revival of Das Rheingold. Karajan recorded all four operas from the cycle with the Texas baritone, and Time Magazine acclaimed him "the Wotan of his generation."
Stewart made his
With the
In his prime years Stewart also returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing the Dutchman and Hans Sachs, as well as Orest, Ford, and Mozart's Almaviva. At other houses worldwide, his better-known roles also included Scarpia in Tosca, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, di Luna in Il trovatore, Amonasro in Aida, and the title roles in Rigoletto and Eugene Onegin.
In later years, he and his wife ran the Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart Emerging Singers Program of the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.
Thomas Stewart died of a heart attack while playing golf near his home in Rockville, Maryland, aged 78. He was survived by his two children and his wife, who died in 2012.
Selected discography
- With Herbert von Karajan: Das Rheingold (as Wotan); Die Walküre (as Wotan); Siegfried (as Der Wanderer); Götterdämmerung (as Gunther). Stewart's Rheingold Wotan was both recorded and filmed.
- With Rafael Kubelík: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (as Hans Sachs); Lohengrin (as Telramund); Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
- With The Flying Dutchman (as The Dutchman); Götterdämmerung (as Gunther); Elektra(as Orest).
- With Hans Knappertsbusch: Parsifal (as Amfortas).
- With Pierre Boulez: Parsifal (as Amfortas).
- With Wolfgang Sawallisch: Elektra (as Orest).
- With Karl Richter: Samson (as Manoa); Ein deutsches Requiem.
- With Heinrich Hollreiser: Jonny spielt auf (as Daniello).
- With Kurt Eichhorn: Iphigenie in Aulis (as Kalchas); Die Kluge (as Der König).
- With Horst Stein: Highlights from Nabucco (as Nabucco); highlights from Der Evangelimann (as Johannes).
- With Saint-Saëns, etc.
References
- ^ Howard Taubman (May 10, 1957). "Opera: First by Chavez" (PDF). The New York Times.
External links
- Thomas Stewart, 78, Baritone on Opera Stage, Dies, The New York Times, September 26, 2006
- Two Interviews with Thomas Stewart, December 5, 1981, and January 31, 1991