Leonard Warren

The American opera singer Leonard Warren (April 21, 1911 - March 4, 1960) was a famous baritone who was associated for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Soprano Renata Tebaldi said of his voice: "it was a very, very soft, velvety voice...He was truly stupendous."

Biography

Born Leonard Warenoff in New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Warren was first employed in his father's fur business. In 1935, he joined the chorus at Radio City Music Hall. In 1938, he entered the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air. Despite the fact Warren was obviously a novice, his natural gifts were apparent, and he was immediately given a contract. The Met sent him to Italy that summer with a stipend to study.

Returning to America, Warren made his concert debut at the Metropolitan Opera in excerpts from "La Traviata" and "Pagliacci" during a concert in New York in November 1938. His formal operatic debut took place there in January 1939, when he sang Paolo in "Simon Boccanegra". A recording contract with RCA Victor soon followed.

Warren later sang in San Francisco, Chicago, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires, he appeared at La Scala in Milan in 1953, and in 1958, he made a highly successful tour of the Soviet Union, but for most of his career he remained in New York and sang at the Met. Sometime during that period, he converted to Roman Catholicism and became extremely devout.

Although he sang Tonio in "Pagliacci", Escamillo in "Carmen", and Scarpia in "Tosca", he was particularly acclaimed as one of the finest interpreters of the great Verdi baritone roles, above all the title role of "Rigoletto", which was captured in 1950 in an RCA recording with soprano Erna Berger and tenor Jan Peerce, conducted by Renato Cellini. This was the first complete operatic recording to be released by RCA Victor on LP records. He also sang the role in a Madison Square Garden Red Cross benefit concert in 1944, in which only the final act of the opera was featured. Jan Peerce again sang the Duke, but this time Zinka Milanov was Gilda, and the NBC Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. This "Rigoletto" excerpt was later released on records and CD by RCA Victor, and the entire concert was released years later on an unofficial CD 2-disc album. His other published complete opera recordings included La Traviata with Rosanna Carteri, Cesare Valletti, and conductor Pierre Monteux, Pagliacci with Victoria de los Angeles, Jussi Bjoerling and Robert Merrill; Tosca, Aida, and Il Trovatore, each with Zinka Milanov and Jussi Bjoerling; a second recording of Il Trovatore with his friend and final tenor co-star, Richard Tucker, featuring a young Leontyne Price in her Met debut role of Leonora; and Verdi's Macbeth, with Leonie Rysanek and Carlo Bergonzi. Private recordings exist of his Simon Boccanegra and Iago in Otello. He also was the Renato in an album of highlights from Un Ballo in Maschera made with Marian Anderson as Ulrica on the occasion of her Met debut.

Warren's last complete performance was as Simon Boccanegra on March 1, 1960 at the Met. Three days later, in a performance of "La Forza del Destino" with Tebaldi, he died on stage. According to legend, he was about to launch into the vigorous cabaletta to Don Carlo's act III aria, which begins "Morir, tremenda cosa" ("to die, a momentous thing"), when he started coughing and gasping. His final words were "Help me, help me!" and he pitched face-forward down to the floor. However, eyewitnesses including Rudolf Bing report that Warren had completed the aria and had gone on to the subsequent action where he was supposed to open a sealed wallet, examine the contents and sing "Gioia, o gioia" (Joy, oh joy). He did so, pitched forward and was still. A few minutes later he was pronounced dead of a massive heart attack, and the rest of the performance was canceled. Warren was only forty-eight. His death impacted the Met schedule for several years following; he had been cast in the title role for a future Met premiere of Verdi's "Nabucco" during the 1960-61 season.

Warren was known as a person of an intractable character who always tried to impose his will on stage designers, managers, and even conductors, in matters of production, direction, and tempi. He caused pain, a colleague once noted, but he had a great voice.

In his book "The American Opera Singer" (1997, ISBN 0-385-42174-5), Peter G. Davis wrote of Warren:

:The rich, rounded, mellow quality of [Warren's] voice, fairly bursting with resonant overtones, may not have been to every taste, particularly those preferring a narrower baritonal focus that "speaks" more quickly on the note. But by any standards it was a deluxe, quintessentially "Metropolitan Opera sound," one that seemed to take on a special glow and lustrousness as it opened up and spread itself generously around the big auditorium. And of course the easy top was its special glory -- when relaxing with friends Warren would often tear into tenor arias like "Di quella pira" and toss off the high Cs that many tenors lacked. He could have, but never did, overindulge that applause-getting facility.

External links

* [http://bassocantante.com/opera/warren.html Biography on Bassocantante]
* [http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/mus/pdf/MusWarre.pdf Leonard Warren Papers] in the [http://www.nypl.org/musicdiv Music Division] of [http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/lpa.html The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]
* [http://leonardwarren.org/ The Leonard Warren Foundation]