Theodor Uppman
Encyclopedia
Theodor Uppman was an American
opera
tic baritone
. He is best known for his creation of the title role in Benjamin Britten
's opera Billy Budd
.
Uppman, of Swedish descent, was born in San Jose
, California
, and studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia. He made his professional debut in 1941 with the Northern California Symphony Orchestra. His career was sparked by his 1947 concert performance as Pelléas in Debussy’s
Pelléas et Mélisande
, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
under Pierre Monteux
, and Maggie Teyte
as Mélisande. He soon reprised the role with the New York City Opera
in 1948 and in his debut with the Metropolitan Opera
on 27 November 1953.
Although he quit singing in 1951 to work in the California oil industry, he was persuaded to come back to opera to perform in the premiere of Billy Budd a short time later at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
. Britten originally had Geraint Evans
in mind for the role, but he withdrew because its tessitura was too high for his voice, and he sang another part. The composer conducted, there were 17 curtain calls, and Uppman was acclaimed as a new star.
Uppman sang 395 performances in fourteen roles during a 24-year career with the Metropolitan Opera, most frequently in Mozart
operas: 98 performances as Masetto in Don Giovanni
and 60 performances as Papageno in The Magic Flute
. He also appeared as Guglielmo in 24 performances of Così fan tutte
. While with the Met he virtually owned the role of Paquillo in Offenbach’s
La Périchole
, singing in every one of its 54 performances, from its Metropolitan premiere on 21 December 1956, through the performance in Detroit on 27 May 1971. Another frequent role, Sharpless in Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly
, he sang 37 times; Sharpless was the role of his farewell performance with the Met on 8 April 1978. In 1983 he sang the seven baritone roles in Britten's Death in Venice
in Geneva.
A supporter of new American operas, Uppman also created roles in Carlisle Floyd
’s Passion of Jonathan Wade (with Phyllis Curtin
and Norman Treigle
), Heitor Villa-Lobos
's Yerma in 1971, Thomas Pasatieri
’s Black Widow
in 1972, and Leonard Bernstein
’s A Quiet Place
(opposite Chester Ludgin
).
Uppman was known for his dramatic characterization as well as for his curly blond locks and good looks.
In his later years he became a professor of voice, teaching at both Mannes College of Music (from 1977) and the Manhattan School of Music
(from 1988) until his death.
Uppman married Jean Seward in 1943. The couple had two children.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
opera
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 baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
. He is best known for his creation of the title role in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's opera Billy Budd
Billy Budd (opera)
Billy Budd is an opera by Benjamin Britten, from a libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, was first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 1 December 1951. It is based on the short novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville....
.
Uppman, of Swedish descent, was born in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
in Philadelphia. He made his professional debut in 1941 with the Northern California Symphony Orchestra. His career was sparked by his 1947 concert performance as Pelléas in Debussy’s
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
, with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
San Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
under Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...
, and Maggie Teyte
Maggie Teyte
Dame Maggie Teyte DBE was an English operatic soprano and interpreter of French art song.-Early years:Margaret Tate was born in Wolverhampton, England, one of ten children of Jacob James Tate, a successful wine and spirit merchant and proprietor of public houses and later lodgings. Her parents...
as Mélisande. He soon reprised the role 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...
in 1948 and in his debut with the 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...
on 27 November 1953.
Although he quit singing in 1951 to work in the California oil industry, he was persuaded to come back to opera to perform in the premiere of Billy Budd a short time later at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. Britten originally had Geraint Evans
Geraint Evans
Sir Geraint Llewellyn Evans was a Welsh baritone or bass-baritone noted for operatic roles including Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and the title roles in Falstaff and Wozzeck...
in mind for the role, but he withdrew because its tessitura was too high for his voice, and he sang another part. The composer conducted, there were 17 curtain calls, and Uppman was acclaimed as a new star.
Uppman sang 395 performances in fourteen roles during a 24-year career with the Metropolitan Opera, most frequently in Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
operas: 98 performances as Masetto in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and 60 performances as Papageno in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
. He also appeared as Guglielmo in 24 performances of Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
. While with the Met he virtually owned the role of Paquillo in Offenbach’s
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
, singing in every one of its 54 performances, from its Metropolitan premiere on 21 December 1956, through the performance in Detroit on 27 May 1971. Another frequent role, Sharpless in Puccini’s
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, he sang 37 times; Sharpless was the role of his farewell performance with the Met on 8 April 1978. In 1983 he sang the seven baritone roles in Britten's Death in Venice
Death in Venice (opera)
Death in Venice is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, his last. The opera is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Myfanwy Piper wrote the English libretto. It was first performed at Snape Maltings near Aldeburgh, England on 16 June 1973.The astringent score is marked by some...
in Geneva.
A supporter of new American operas, Uppman also created roles in Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
’s Passion of Jonathan Wade (with Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
and Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
), Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
's Yerma in 1971, Thomas Pasatieri
Thomas Pasatieri
Thomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.He began composing at age 10 and, as a teenager, studied with Nadia Boulanger...
’s Black Widow
Black Widow (opera)
Black Widow is an opera in three acts by Thomas Pasatieri with an English libretto also by the composer. The libretto is based on Miguel de Unamuno's Dos madres. The opera premiered on March 2, 1972 with Seattle Opera. Other notable productions include Lake George Opera in 1972 and the Atlanta...
in 1972, and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
’s A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place is an American opera in three acts, with music by Leonard Bernstein to a libretto by Stephen Wadsworth. The work is a sequel to Bernstein's 1951 short opera Trouble in Tahiti. In its initial form A Quiet Place was in one act; the premiere, on June 17, 1983, was a double bill: Trouble...
(opposite Chester Ludgin
Chester Ludgin
-Biography:Chester Ludgin was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He made his professional debut in 1956 with The Experimental Opera Theatre of America , as Baron Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, conducted by Renato Cellini and directed by Armando Agnini...
).
Uppman was known for his dramatic characterization as well as for his curly blond locks and good looks.
In his later years he became a professor of voice, teaching at both Mannes College of Music (from 1977) and the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
(from 1988) until his death.
Uppman married Jean Seward in 1943. The couple had two children.
External links
- Biography from the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of MusicThe Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
- Obituary from The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
- Obituary from The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
of London - MetOpera database