Arthur Middleton (bass-baritone)
Encyclopedia
Arthur Middleton was an American operatic and concert bass-baritone.

Life

Middleton studied with Charles R. Adams
Charles R. Adams
Charles R. Adams was an American opera singer and singing instructor. An excellent tenor and fine actor, he had a commanding stage presence and was particularly admired for his interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner....

 and Alexander Emslie and made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 in 1914. Other musical associations included the Apollo Club in Chicago and the New York Symphony Orchestra
New York Symphony Orchestra
The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a fierce rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie who built Carnegie Hall expressly for the...

.

Middleton sang secondary roles at the Metropolitan Opera during a tenure encompassing only 22 performances between November 1914 and February 1916. In both his debut on November 18, 1914 and his farewell on February 26, 1916, he appeared as the Herald in Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...

. He sang two other Wagnerian roles for the company: Titurel in Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...

and Donner in Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...

. His non-Wagnerian roles were Ludwig in Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....

's Euryanthe
Euryanthe
Euryanthe is a German "grand, heroic, romantic" opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed at the Theater am Kärntnertor, Vienna on 25 October 1823...

and Don Fernando in Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...

. Middleton also appeared at least once with the company on tour in Philadelphia, where he again appeared as the Lohengrin Herald on December 8, 1914.

Middleton's repertory was somewhat more varied and substantial when he participated in seven concerts at the Metropolitan Opera House during approximately the same period, although he tended to repeat selections in successive appearances. In the first concert, taking place on November 22, 1914, just a few days after his Metropolitan Opera debut, he sang O du mein holder Abendstern from Wagner's Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...

and Air du tambour major from Thomas
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...

's Le Caïd. In subsequent concerts, he was heard in Wotan's Farewell from Wagner's Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...

, Walter Damrosch's celebrated song Danny Deever
Danny Deever
Danny Deever is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling, one of the first of the Barrack-Room Ballads. It received wide critical and popular acclaim, and is often regarded as one of the most significant pieces of Kipling's early verse. The poem, a ballad, describes the execution of a British soldier in...

, and Why Do the Nations from Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...

and Largo al factotum
Largo al factotum
Largo al factotum is an aria from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, sung at the first entrance of the title character; the repeated "Figaro"s before the final patter section are an icon in popular culture of operatic singing...

from Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the last two figuring in his final appearance at the house on November 19, 1916.

Perhaps Middleton's most important operatic assumption came not with the Metropolitan Opera but rather with the Chicago Opera Company: he created the role of Ramatzin in Henry Hadley's opera Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma
Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma
Azora, The Daughter of Montezuma is an opera in 3 acts by American composer Henry Kimball Hadley to a libretto in English by author David Stevens.-Synopsis:The story takes place at the time of the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortez...

, which had its world premiere in Chicago in December 1917 and its New York premiere on January 26, 1918. The latter performance, which took place at the Lexington Theater, was part of the Chicago company's first New York season since 1914; Middleton did not participate in another New York debut that opened the series, Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...

's Isabeau
Isabeau
Isabeau is a leggenda drammatica or opera in three parts by Pietro Mascagni, 1911, from an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Mascagni conducted its first performance on June 2, 1911 at the Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires....

, which had achieved its American debut in Chicago only a few months before. Neither work entered the standard repertory, although Isabeau has clung to its fringes while Azora promptly disappeared entirely. The New York Times, in its review published January 28, 1918, wrote, "Arthur Middleton, a well-known baritone, also made an excellent figure of the noble Tlascalan's rival, the Mexican General Ramatzin."

Middleton appears to have engaged in an active concert career involving widespread travel within the United States. A list of his documented appearances would include the following:
  • Mankato, Minnesota
    Mankato, Minnesota
    Mankato is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 39,309 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest city in Minnesota outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The county seat of Blue Earth County, it is located...

    , December 25, 1912: Soloist in Handel's Messiah together with soprano Mable Sharp Herdien, contralto Genevieve Wheat, and tenor Edward Strong; the organist was Roger Mintener, and Emil Oberhoffer conducted.

  • New York, October 29, 1917: Middleton's first New York song recital, given at Aeolian Hall
    Aeolian Hall (New York)
    Aeolian Hall was a concert hall near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City located on the third floor of 29-33 West 42nd Street across the street from Bryant Park. The Aeolian Building was built in 1912 for the Aeolian Company, which manufactured pianos...

    , included Where'er You Walk from Handel's Semele; Schubert
    Franz Schubert
    Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

    's Der Wanderer; the same Thomas and Rossini arias noted above; and lighter fare including old English airs, Hotner's Uncle Rom, Lucy Broadwood
    Lucy Broadwood
    Lucy Etheldred Broadwood was principally an English folksong collector and researcher during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As one of the founder members of the Folk-Song Society and Editor of the Folk Song Journal, she was one of the main influences of the English folk revival of that...

    's Old Surrey Air, and "ballads from Kipling", presumably including Danny Deever. [New York Times, "Tenor and Baritone Heard", October 30, 1917]

  • New York, June, 1918: Participant in Lewisohn Stadium
    Lewisohn Stadium
    Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York. It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973.-History:...

     concerts organized for the support and entertainment of American military personnel mobilizing for World War I. [New York Times, "Wartime 'Pop' Concerts", June 16, 1918]

  • Spartanburg, South Carolina
    Spartanburg, South Carolina
    thgSpartanburg is the largest city in and the county seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest city of the three primary cities in the Upstate region of South Carolina, and is located northwest of Columbia, west of Charlotte, and about northeast of...

    , May, 1921: Participant in Converse College
    Converse College
    Converse College is a liberal arts women's college in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA. It was established by a group of Spartanburg citizens and named after Dexter Edgar Converse.-History:...

     Choral Society 25th anniversary concert series. [New York Times, "Music News and Notes", May 1, 1921]

  • Weatherford, Oklahoma
    Weatherford, Oklahoma
    Weatherford is a city in Custer County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 10,833 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Weatherford is located at , elevation 1,647 feet ....

    , 1921: Concert at the Southwestern Normal Auditorium.

  • San Francisco, California
    San Francisco, California
    San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

    , December 15, 1925: Soloist in first performance of Handel's Messiah by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; other soloists were Lorna Lachmund, Belle Montgomery, Paul Althouse
    Paul Althouse
    Paul Shearer Althouse was an American opera singer. He began his career as a lyric tenor with a robust Italianate sound, excelling in roles like Cavaradossi, Pinkerton, and Turiddu. He later branched out into the dramatic tenor repertoire, finding particular success in portraying Wagnerian heroes...

    , and Warren D. Allen, and Alfred Hertz
    Alfred Hertz
    Alfred Hertz , a German conductor born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. As a child, he contracted infantile paralysis and walked with a cane after that....

     conducted.

  • Des Moines, Iowa
    Des Moines, Iowa
    Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...

    , 1926: Appeared in The Birth of the Messiah at the Iowa State Fair
    Iowa State Fair
    The Iowa State Fair is an annual state fair held in Des Moines, Iowa.The 2011 Iowa State Fair was held August 11–21 and marked 100 years of the butter cow sculpture.-History:...

    .


Middleton also taught singing; among his pupils was Olive Townend-Middleton. Perhaps more notably, Middleton coached his nephew, actor Ray Middleton
Ray Middleton
Raymond Earl Middleton, Jr. , known and billed as Ray Middleton, was an American character actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Middleton was the first actor to play Superman in public, which he did on July 3, 1940, during the 1939 New York World's Fair's "Superman Day"...

, at the outset of the latter's musical career.

Recordings

Despite his less than stellar operatic career, Middleton became in essence the house bass for Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

's National Phonograph Company, which promoted his association with the Metropolitan Opera and recorded him in repertory of far larger import and scope than anything he presented on the stage. Middleton recorded not only under his own name but also as Edward Allen and Eduard Mittelstadt. Middleton figured in the company's celebrated "tone tests," in which recording artists would perform in tandem with their recordings, played on Edison equipment, before an audience in order to demonstrate that the two were indistinguishable; one of the first such presentations, taking place on November 18, 1915 at Boston's Symphony Hall
Symphony Hall, Boston
Symphony Hall is a concert hall located at 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it was built in 1900 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which continues to make the hall its home. The hall was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1999...

, included his recording of Pro Peccatis from Rossini's Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Roman Catholic hymn to Mary. It has been variously attributed to the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi and to Innocent III...

, although the live performer on that occasion was contralto Christine Miller.
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