William warfield bio

However, Warfield described what became an extraordinary event:.

William warfield bio

The project was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, so Warfield anticipated a return to regular concertizing and nightclub engagements. As rehearsals of the opera and other preparations for the tour progressed, the two singers became romantically involved and were married just before the company departed for the European portion of the tour.

Before the cast left for Europe, however, they gave a successful performance in Washington, DC, in the newly desegregated National Theater. The performance was attended by President Harry Truman and numerous political officials who returned to town specifically for the August event. The performances in Vienna and Berlin were overwhelmingly successful.

Warfield would not request release from his previous obligations, so the New York premiere served as the beginning of an extended separation for the couple. Warfield and Price gave a few concerts—including a concert with the Boston Symphony under the direction of Leonard Bernstein—together, but their professional careers took them into completely different directions.

Price had begun her operatic career at the perfect moment when her considerable talents would be allowed to flourish on the world and American stages. Warfield, in contrast, found the opportunities for an African American male opera singer remained too limited, whereas the concert tours and popular music scenes still presented him with ample means of professional fulfillment.

The couple separated in and finally divorced amicably in In , Warfield toured Europe, highlighted with a critically successful appearance La Scala, as soloist with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The bass-baritone parlayed his extensive repertoire and experience as a touring musician into a series of six international tours sponsored by the State Department.

One of his stops on the African tour was to Rhodesia, a country still governed at that time by its apartheid policies. Warfield described the extraordinary arrangements made to accommodate his presence:. Because I would certainly have encountered problems just walking through a park and perhaps using the wrong water fountain, I was escorted by dignitaries or their deputies everywhere I went.

It was all very white-gloves, but it was nonetheless clear: For all practical purposes, I was in the protective custody of the officials. It was as if I were hermetically sealed from the country and its problems. I could observe it, but I was protected from it. He and songstress Muriel Rahn become the first African American concert artists presented on television with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

He had previously premiered the orchestrated version of Set 1 three years earlier and recorded Set 2 in Warfield also essayed the role of Porgy in annual performances of the opera with the Vienna Volksoper from Years later, he discussed the changes in his voice and the music he selected for it:. But when I hit 30 and my voice settled into a bass-baritone range, those were increasingly difficult.

I never did the lowest bass parts. It had to do with the sound. So it just happened naturally and I went with what felt most comfortable in my voice. He chose to return to Rochester and the Eastman School of Music for his studies, graduating with a bachelor's degree in , and after four years of service in the military, returned to earn his master's degree in Following military service, Dr.

Warfield performed as lead singer in the national touring company of the Broadway hit Call Me Mister. However, it was his debut recital in New York's Town Hall in that propelled his career to the forefront: he was immediately invited on a concert tour by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Though he has sung it countless times, "It's different every time," he told the Chicago Tribune , depending on his feelings the day of the performance.

Warfield then agreed to star in Porgy and Bess alongside soprano Leontyne Price; the parts became signature roles for them both. They began performing together in and were married that year. Soon their careers began taking off in different directions. Warfield pursued his career in the musical theater while Price followed a course that would lead her to a serious operatic career.

They separated in and divorced in That's all it was," Warfield told the Chicago Tribune. The two remained close friends and neither of them has remarried. During the s, Warfield's career reached new heights. State Department in , , and Warfield recorded frequently during this time and began to study technique with Rosa Ponelle, a singer with the Metropolitan Opera.

The s and s saw Warfield reviving his signature roles in Porgy and Bess and Showboat. His vocal talents were also featured on two recordings of Handel 's " Messiah " — a classic, but heavily cut, performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy released in , and a lesser-known, drastically restructured recording made in , also heavily cut, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

Bernstein combined the Christmas and Resurrection sections and ended with the arias and choruses depicting the death of Jesus. Warfield was also accomplished in acting and poetry recitation. He played the character "The Lord" in a celebrated Hallmark Hall of Fame television production of " The Green Pastures ", a role he played twice on live TV both versions survive as kinescopes.

In a nod to Show Boat , Warfield played a cameo role as a tugboat captain. Warfield played his Show Boat role in two other productions of the musical — the Lincoln Center production, and a production in Vienna. He later appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in In , he appeared as a recital soloist on an episode of the Young People's Concerts , conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Managed by Arthur White, this ensemble toured the United States giving full concerts of African-American spirituals and folk songs until Warfield's death in Beginning in , Warfield began to have trouble with his voice, a situation he described in his autobiography. By his voice had deepened from bass-baritone to a full-fledged bass , and he could not sing the climactic high note on Ol' Man River as easily as he had in the film version.

To compensate he had to sing even more expressively than he had before. By , Warfield, although still making various stage and television appearances, was not singing as much as he had in the past. He served as narrator in various orchestral works, such as Aaron Copland 's Lincoln Portrait , and occasionally performed sprechstimme roles in works by Arnold Schoenberg.

Despite his issues, he did sing on occasion during his final years, despite the fact that by then his singing voice was practically gone. In those years, when he sang " Ol' Man River ", he would not perform it with the original lyrics, but with the altered ones that Paul Robeson used in his recitals beginning in He died in Chicago in August , following treatment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, succumbing to injuries he sustained in his neck from a fall a month prior.

Warfield was active in many organizations, after appearing as the featured artist at the 50th year convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians [2] , he became active with the organization, serving as its president for two terms. After joining the Schiller Institute in , he began to collaborate with acclaimed vocal coach Sylvia Olden Lee in a project to save the performance tradition of the Negro spiritual.

His nephew, Thomas Warfield, has presided over the fund. Contents move to sidebar hide.