Jack Harrold
Encyclopedia
Jack Harrold was an American opera
tic tenor
and voice teacher
. Admired for his comedic skills, he specialized in the tenor buffo repertoire. He had a particularly long association with the New York City Opera
from the 1940s through the 1980s. He also appeared in several Broadway
musical
s. Danny Newman of the Lyric Opera of Chicago
stated that, "Jack Harrold was one of American musical theater's most beloved and most versatile performers, possessing a clarion tenor voice that practically bounced off the back walls of the biggest theaters."
tenor Orville Harrold
. During World War II he served in the United States Army
. He studied singing at the Juilliard School
in New York and privately with Giovanni Martinelli
.
Harrold made his professional opera debut with the New York City Opera
(NYCO) in 1945 and continued to sing with the company with some frequency up through 1987. He appeared in more than 100 productions. Some of the roles he performed with the NYCO were Baron Popoff in The Merry Widow
, Hauk-Sendorf in The Makropoulos Case, Ko-Ko in The Mikado
, the Magician in The Consul
, both Prince Orlofsky and the jailor Frosch in Die Fledermaus
, Truffaldino in The Love for Three Oranges, and Wazir in Kismet
among others. In 1964 he created the role of the Doctor in the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's
Natalia Petrovna at the NYCO. His performance of the Grand Inquisitor in Candide
at the NYCO was recorded and the album won the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording
.
Harrold also sang roles as a guest artist with several other American companies, including the Fort Worth Opera
, Opera Carolina
, Opera Company of Boston
, the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
, and the Tulsa Opera
. In 1950 he appeared in several productions at the Chicago Railroad Fair
, including performing the roles of Ko-Ko and Baron Popoff. He also sang important roles in WGN Radio broadcasts of The Mikado, Iolanthe
, Die Fledermaus, and A Night in Venice. In addition to his opera career, he also performed roles in musicals throughout his caeer. He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston (1945). He also appeared in the original Broadway
productions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(replaced Zero Mostel
as Pseudolus), The Vamp
(as Bluestone in the original cast), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown
(as Monsignor Ryan in the original cast). His final stage appearance was in January 1994 as Abraham Kaplan in Kurt Weill
's Street Scene
at the Houston Grand Opera
, just seven months before his death from lung cancer in Manhattan at the age of 74.
During the 1960s and 1970s Harrold taught singing and was director of the opera theatre program at the University of Oklahoma
in Norman. He also ran a private studio out of New York City on and off since the late 1960s. One of his most successful students was Metropolitan Opera
tenor Chris Merritt
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
and voice teacher
Voice teacher
A voice teacher or singing teacher is a musical instructor who trains adults and children in the art of singing. This generally involves training in breath control and support, proper tone production, pitch control and musical intonation, proper formation of vowels and consonants as well as...
. Admired for his comedic skills, he specialized in the tenor buffo repertoire. He had a particularly long association with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
from the 1940s through the 1980s. He also appeared in several Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
s. Danny Newman of the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
stated that, "Jack Harrold was one of American musical theater's most beloved and most versatile performers, possessing a clarion tenor voice that practically bounced off the back walls of the biggest theaters."
Life and career
Born in Atlantic City, Harrold was the son of Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan 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...
tenor Orville Harrold
Orville Harrold
Orville Harrold was an American operatic tenor and musical theatre actor. He began his career in 1906 as a performer in operettas in New York City, and was also seen during his early career in cabaret, musical theatre, and vaudeville performances...
. During World War II he served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. He studied singing at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in New York and privately with Giovanni Martinelli
Giovanni Martinelli
Giovanni Martinelli was a celebrated Italian operatic tenor. He was particularly associated with the Italian lyric-dramatic repertory, although he performed French operatic roles to great acclaim as well...
.
Harrold made his professional opera debut with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
(NYCO) in 1945 and continued to sing with the company with some frequency up through 1987. He appeared in more than 100 productions. Some of the roles he performed with the NYCO were Baron Popoff in The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
, Hauk-Sendorf in The Makropoulos Case, Ko-Ko in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, the Magician in The Consul
The Consul
The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as the lead heroine Magda Sorel, Gloria Lane as the secretary of the consulate,...
, both Prince Orlofsky and the jailor Frosch in Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
, Truffaldino in The Love for Three Oranges, and Wazir in Kismet
Kismet
Kismet may refer to:* Fate or Destiny in Turkish and Hindi-Urdu, a predetermined course of events, from Persian qesmat, from Arabic qisma, lot, from qasama, to divide, allot...
among others. In 1964 he created the role of the Doctor in the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's
Lee Hoiby
Lee Henry Hoiby was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism during a time when such compositions were deemed old fashioned and irrelevant to modern society...
Natalia Petrovna at the NYCO. His performance of the Grand Inquisitor in Candide
Candide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
at the NYCO was recorded and the album won the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording
The Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording has been awarded since 1961. The award was originally titled Best Classical Opera Production. The current title has been used since 1962....
.
Harrold also sang roles as a guest artist with several other American companies, including the Fort Worth Opera
Fort Worth Opera
According to the company, Fort Worth Opera is the oldest, continually performing opera company in the state of Texas and among the oldest in the United States. While originally presenting operas one at a time over a fall/winter season, it changed to a "festival" format in 2007...
, Opera Carolina
Opera Carolina
Opera Carolina is a professional opera company located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company reaches over 75,000 people from North Carolina and South Carolina....
, Opera Company of Boston
Opera Company of Boston
The Opera Company of Boston was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active during the late 1950s through the early 1990s. The company was founded by American conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1958 under the name Boston Opera Group. At one time, the touring arm of the...
, the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius...
, and the Tulsa Opera
Tulsa Opera
The Tulsa Opera, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the 18th oldest opera company in the United States and is ranked among the top 10 regional opera companies in the nation. The company produces three opera productions each season performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center...
. In 1950 he appeared in several productions at the Chicago Railroad Fair
Chicago Railroad Fair
The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is often referred to as "the last great railroad fair" with 39 railroad companies...
, including performing the roles of Ko-Ko and Baron Popoff. He also sang important roles in WGN Radio broadcasts of The Mikado, Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
, Die Fledermaus, and A Night in Venice. In addition to his opera career, he also performed roles in musicals throughout his caeer. He made his Broadway debut in the short-lived Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston (1945). He also appeared in the original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....
(replaced Zero Mostel
Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel “Zero” Mostel was an American actor of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version...
as Pseudolus), The Vamp
The Vamp
The Vamp is a musical comedy with music by James Mundy; lyrics by John La Touche; and a musical book by La Touche and Sam Locke which is based on a story by La Touche. The musical opened on Broadway on November 10, 1955 at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran for a total of 60 performances until...
(as Bluestone in the original cast), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a 1964 American musical film directed by Charles Walters. The screenplay by Helen Deutsch is based on the book of the 1960 musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown by Richard Morris. The song score was composed by Meredith Willson. The plot is a fictionalized account of the...
(as Monsignor Ryan in the original cast). His final stage appearance was in January 1994 as Abraham Kaplan in Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's Street Scene
Street Scene (opera)
Street Scene is a Broadway musical or, more precisely, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill , Langston Hughes , and Elmer Rice...
at the Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
, just seven months before his death from lung cancer in Manhattan at the age of 74.
During the 1960s and 1970s Harrold taught singing and was director of the opera theatre program at the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
in Norman. He also ran a private studio out of New York City on and off since the late 1960s. One of his most successful students was 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...
tenor Chris Merritt
Chris Merritt
Chris Merritt is an opera singer. He studied piano, singing, dance and drama at Oklahoma City University where he made his first stage appearance in Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in a university production. At age 21, he was accepted into the summer season Apprentice Program for...
.