DES MOINES 〓 American bass-baritone Simon Estes has announced his retirement from opera

2022/06/17

American bass-baritone Simon Estes has announced his retirement from opera. He is one of the first generation of widely successful black opera singers, and through his nearly 60 years in the opera world, he has contributed significantly to the advancement of black singers.

His last appearance will be in Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” with the Des Moines Metro Opera in Iowa. The New York Metropolitan Opera first presented “Porgy and Bess” in 1985, in which he sang the role of Porgy. In last performance, he will play Attorney Frazier as his 103rd role.

Estes was born in Centerville, Iowa, in 1938, and is 84 years old. He went to the University of Iowa to study medicine, but after joining the university choir as its first black member, he decided to pursue vocal music, and after graduation he went to the Juilliard School of Music.

He then moved to Europe, where discrimination and prejudice were less prevalent than in the U.S., and made his professional debut in 1965 singing the role of Rumphis in Verdi’s “Aida” at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

The following year, he won third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. In 1978, he became the first African American singer to sing the role of the Dutchman in “The Flying Dutchman” at the Bayreuth Festival.

In 1982, he returned to the U.S., where prejudice and discrimination were still strong, and appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. At that time, he sang the role of Hermann in Wagner’s “Tannhäuser. At the Metropolitan Opera, after “Porgy and Bess” in 1985, he was cast as Wotan in the new production of “The Ring of the Nibelung” in 1986.

In addition to his singing, he has been active in humanitarian activities and has sung for such international figures as Presidents Clinton, Yeltsin, and Mandela, as well as the Pope.

He will continue to teach as a professor at Iowa State University and Des Moines Area Community College, while continuing his concert career.
Photo:Iowa State University / Christopher Gannon


How about this ?

  1. ZURICH 〓 Opera Zurich presents its season 2018/2019

  2. MUNICH 〓 Bavarian State Opera has announced a performance lineup for the 2020/2021 season

  3. BEIJING 〓 Philadelphia Orchestra will serve as the resident orchestra for the China International Music Competition

  4. MILAN 〓 Christian Thielemann withdraws from conducting the new Ring cycle at La Scala

  5. TOKYO 〓 NHK Symphony Orchestra announced that it will tour Taiwan in late August

  6. LAS PALMAS 〓 Opera Las Palmas presents its season

  7. VIENNA 〓 Mariss Jansons has been awarded Honorary Membership in the Vienna Philharmonic

  8. VIENNA 〓 Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra will appoint Marin Alsop to Principal Conductor

  9. DENVER 〓 Colorado Symphony Appoints Peter Oundjian as Principal Conductor

  10. VIENNA 〓 Daribol Karvay was appointed as the first concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony

  11. MOSCOW 〓 Gergiev has been appointed General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre and Bolshoi Theatre

  12. ROME 〓 Italian theater closes until March 8, with new coronavirus infection spread

  13. VIENNA 〓 Franz Welser-Möst will be the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2023 New Year’s Concert

  14. HONG KONG 〓 Tarmo Peltokoski to succeed Jaap van Zweden as music director of Hong Kong Philharmonic

  15. PRAGUE 〓 Czech Philharmonic will hold its first concert with audience since last fall

  1. No comments yet.

  1. No trackbacks yet.