Who do we seek for reference when looking for a"Role model"?
Do we search in modern archives? ( I shall not name new generation singers ) Or do we immediately look back into the golden days of singing?
Do names such as Barbieri, Caruso, Guelfi, Gigli, Schippa,Callas, Taddei, Del Monaco, Lemman, Filippeschi…ring a bell?
So what when wrong? Why did voices ”shrink” to the point of needing amplification inside the theater?
If you are looking to develop and obtain a “Theater voice” this site is for you. If you adore certain characters that sound like Mickey Mouse this site is definitely not for you.
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Rafael´s Teachers
Adrian Thompson
London-born Adrian Thompson is an artist of extraordinary versatility with a wide-ranging opera, concert and recital repertoire. He trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he is now a professor of vocal studies.
His opera appearances have included the title role of Peter Grimes, Skuratov From the House Of The Dead for Oper Frankfurt; Snout A Midsummer Night’s Dream for La Scala, Milan; Mao Nixon in China and 1st Jew Salome for Canadian Opera Company; Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte, 1st Jew in Salome, Arv in Nielsen’s Maskarade and Valzacchi Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Scribe Khovanshchina and Lilaque Pere Boulevard Solitude for Welsh National Opera, Esslinger Die Meistersinger and School Teacher The Cunning Little Vixen at Glyndebourne, Michael Jarrell’s Galilée and Rev. Adams Peter Grimes (Runnicles) for Grand Théâtre de Genève; Mime Das Rheingold and Siegfried for Nederlandse Reisopera; the title role of Janacek’s The Diary of One who Disappearedboth in Brussels and the Aix-en-Provence Festival; Vitek The Makropulos Case for Angers/Nantes Opera; Zivny in Janacek’s Osud and Midas in Die Liebe Der Danae for Garsington Opera, concert performances of Grigory Boris Godunov at The Brighton Festival and Big Prisoner From the House of the Dead for Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg. He has also performed with Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe, Oper der Stadt Köln, Staatstheater Stuttgart, at the Bregenz Festival, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, New Israeli Opera, and The Netherlands Opera. Further engagements include Albert Herring with BBC Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for Lichfield Festival, Noctambulist Louise for Buxton Festival, Shabby Peasant Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for ENO, further performances as Eisslinger Die Meistersinger for Glyndebourne Festival, Shapkin From the House of the Dead at the Savonlinna Festival and at the Brno Festival (for WNO), Hermit in Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus for Independent Opera and Mr Upfold Albert Herring for The Grange Festival.
Adrian Thompson has performed with all the major British orchestras and ensembles and his overseas engagements have taken him all over the world. During his career he has worked with many distinguished conductors: Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, Harry Christophers, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Hickox, Sir Colin Davis and Philippe Herreweghe. In the contemporary field he has performed Lutoslawski’s Paroles Tisées with Oliver Knussen and The London Sinfonietta, recorded Judith Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera and has given many first performances of works by British and European composers. His recent concert highlights include Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass with the Hallé Orchestra/Mark Elder, Dream of Gerontius with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Christopher Seaman and at the Royal Festival Hall and War Requiem at the Barbican Centre, London. He is particularly associated with the works of Britten and Elgar and his repertoire also includes Beethoven 9th Symphony, Verdi Requiem and Mahler Das Lied von der Erde as well as the Evangelists of Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions.
A very experienced recitalist, Adrian Thompson has made many appearances at the Wigmore Hall and at festivals in the UK and Europe with pianists Graham Johnson, Iain Burnside and Roger Vignoles and harpist Osian Ellis, also appearing in recital recently with Roger Braun at the Concertgebouw. He has recorded discs of works by Vaughan Williams and Gurney, a volume in the acclaimed Complete Schubert Edition and Janácek’s The Eternal Gospel with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for Hyperion, Warlock’s The Curlew for Collins Classics and Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin for Pickwick. He appears on Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Virgin Classics, Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress, Sir John in Love for Chandos and in Handel’s Rodelinda for Virgin Classics. His discography also includes Britten’s Serenade, Les Illuminations and Nocturne, and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang for Naxos.
Recent engagements include Judith Weir’s In the Land of Uz at the BBC Proms, Scribe Khovanshchina and Shapkin From the House of the Dead for WNO, Mime Das Rheingold at the Royal Festival Hall (LPO/Jurowski), Don Basilio Le Nozze di Figaro with Irish National Opera and Monostatos Die Zauberflöte and Bardolfo Falstaff for Garsington Opera as well as Monostatos for Scottish Opera.
Susan McCulloch FGSM ARCM (Hons)
The international soprano Susan McCulloch’s solo career spans all fields of the classical music world. She has sung –amongst other places- at the Glyndebourne Festival, ENO, Chatelet in Paris, de Nederlandse Oper in Amsterdam, New Year Opera Galas at the Royal Albert Hall, international opera performances as Tosca, the Countess, Marcellina, Leonora etc, with such eminent colleagues as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Charles Mackerras, Mark Elder and Bryn Terfel, to name but a few. Wide varieties of concert and oratorio work as a Principal Guest Soloist took her all over the UK, extensively across Europe, the USA and the Far East, including such works as The Four Last Songs, Mahler Symphony Nos. 2, 4 and 8, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Handel’s The Messiah, Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder – and a great specialism of Opera Gala Evenings.
James McCray
After serving with the United States Marine Corps in Korea, James McCray attended the Mannes School of Music in New York City.
He then won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the American Opera Auditions and many other awards, including the Sullivan Foundation and the Rene Schon Awards. He made his professional debut at the Stratford Ontario Festival in Canada.
He sang Jimmy in Kurt Weil’s and Berthol Brecht’s Mahagonny, under the direction of the great French-Canadian actor Jean Gascon.
Following three years at the Israeli National Opera singing over 300 performances of such roles as “Riccardo” in Ballo in Maschera, “Don Jose” in Carmen, “Cavaradossi” in Tosca, “Canio” in I Pagliacci, “Manrico” in Il Trovatore and Samson. He then returned to New York and made his Lincoln Center debut by replacing Placido Domingo in Giordano’s Fedora under the baton of Eve Queller.
Mr. McCray was engaged for three consecutive years (1974-1976) by the Greater Miami Opera Association where he sang in the Crucible, The Flying Dutchman and Otello, all conducted by Emerson Buckley. During the same years Mr.McCray was the principal tenor at the St.Paul Minnessota Opera Festival.He sang in Carlyle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, La Fanciulla del West and Carmen with such american singer as: Nancy Wilson, Jeanine Crader and Vern Shinall.
In the same Festival he sang Die Walküre and Siegfried which were the first installments of the Gramma Fischer Ring Cycle, conducted by Edwin MacArthurwhich was later produced in Seattle.
In 1975 he opened the Seattle Ring Festival as Siegfried with Anna Green as Brunhilde and George London as stage director. He then returned to Seattle for three seasons singing “Siegmund” as well as “Siegfried” and Götterdämmerung, in addition to “Don Jose” in Carmen. He also sang “Rienzi” in its first stage production in 90 years in San Antonio Texas ,with John Mauceri as musical director, where he had the opportunity to meet and become friends with Friedelind Wagner.
During the same period he made his debut at the San Francisco Opera as Manrico in “Il Trovatore” and The New York City Opera as Don Jose in “Carmen.
In 1979 Mr. McCray returned to Lincoln Center to sing Rossini’s “Mosé in Egitto” with Justino Diaz as his father. Later at the The New York City Opera he sang Avito in Montemezzi’s “L’amore dei tre Re” with Samuel Ramey, conducted by John Mauceri with regie by Frank Corsaro.
This role he had previously had sung at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C with Carole Nebbet and Jerome Hines.
Also during this period Mr.McCray sang many orchestral concerts with such conductors as Zubin Metha, James Levine, Charles Wilson, Brian Priestman, among others.
He also sang in concert the first act of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre with several different sopranos among whom were Eileen Farrel, under the musical direction of Charles Wilson, Jessye Norman and Johanna Meier.In addition to these concerts, Mr McCray sang the 3rd act of Tristan and Isolde with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga New York under the direction of Denis Russel Davies, with Deborah Polaski as “Isolde”.
At the urging of Jessye Norman, James McCray joined Giancarlo del Monaco in Kassel, Germany in september 1981 for Otello and Tristan. In april that year, he had sung Parsifal at the Dutch Opera in Amsterdam under the musical direction of Edo de Waart. During this period he had the opportunity to study with Mario del Monaco and his wife Rina at Villa Luise in Lanceniego (Italy). Previously Mr.McCray had studied with Raymond Buckingham, a protégé of the great Italian baritone Riccardo Stracciari.
One of the most major influences on Mr. McCray was the great American soprano Patricia Newway, the original “Magda” in Giancarlo Menotti’s “The Consul”. He studied all the basic concepts of operatic acting with her at the Mannes school in New York City.
During the 80’s and early 90’s Mr.McCray sang in varoius European Theaters including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Copenhaguen, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Prague, Catania, Cagliari, Oslo, Rouen, Toulon, Nantes, Angier, Orange and Bordeaux among others.
In addition to singing “Sigfried” in August Everding’s Ring in Warsaw, Poland in 1989 and 1990, he has sang over 100 performances of Tristan and Isolde including a production in Brussels with Gwynneth Jones,conducted by Sylvan Camberline , L’Opera de Montreal with Berit Lindholm regie by Roberto Oswald and costumes by Anibal Lapiz , and in Nancy, France, with Liesbeth Baltslev and in Freiburg (Germany) with Deborah Polaski, singing her first Isolde.And in Bordeaux (France) with Linda Kelm, conducted by Pincus Steinberg and sets and costumes by Daniel Ogier. With the stage director Giancarlo del Monaco he has performed the principal tenor role in several productions including Otello, Il Tabarro and Tannhäuser,with sets and costumes by the great designer Michael Scott.
In Europe, Mr. McCray has worked under the musical direction of Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Alain Lombard, Jose Lopez Cobos, Gerd Albrecht, Pincas Steinberg, Adam Fischer, Sylvan Camberling, Woldemar Nelson, Hans Wallat, Marc Suistrot, Bruno Weil, Alexander Sander, Matteus Kunsch and Eugene Kohn among others.
Mr. McCray has sang every Wagnerian opera for heroic tenor, from Liebesvertod and Die Feen to Parsifal. Mr. McCray has sang the Wagnerian repertoire in various Italian opera houses including La Fenice in Venice, where he also sang Fritz in Franz Schreker’s Der Ferne Klang with Sylvia Sass, under the musical direction of Gabriele Ferro. During this period Mr. McCray sang in several productions of Otello in theaters such as Split, Hamburg, Zagreb, Graz, Gent Liege, Prague, Bratislava, and Miami Florida.
Mr. McCray’s last performance was Pollione in Bellini’s “Norma” with the great yugoslavian soprano Radmila Bakocivic at the May Festival in Skopje, Macedonia in 1996. Since then taught in Yugoslavia, Italy, Germany, San Francisco (California) and in The Hague.
James McCray sadly passed away on January 31st 2018.
Rafael Vázquez
Born in Alicante (Spain ) Rafael has been on stage for circa 25 years. He initially studied under Adrian Thompson and Sue McCulloch at the GSMD in London, before meeting James McCray in The Hague around 2006. In all these years he has sang roles such us Elvino (La Sonnambula), Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Tamino(Die Zauberflüte) Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Wilhem (Mignon), Gonsalve (L’heure e spagnole),Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore ), Alfredo (La Traviata), Duca (Rigoletto), Xerxes (Xerxes)Don José (Carmen), McDuff (Macbeth), Rodolfo (La Boheme), Riccardo (Un Ballo in Maschera ), Pollione (Norma ), Cavaradossi (Tosca) ,Manrico (Il Trovatore) Des Grieux (Manon) and Orlando ( Orlando Paladino ) .
In 2014 a carcinoma was detected in his stomach (Today in full remission) and he was force to retire before his prime. Ever since his early retirement he has dedicated all his efforts in preaching the old Italian school of singing especially that of Arturo Melocchi, a method he learned from the latest James McCray in The Hague. McCray learned this methodology from Mario Del Monaco himself as well as Rina Del Monaco, Mario’s wife.
Rafael teaches worldwide from his studio in Alicante (Spain) and is in close contact with Maestro Fulvio Massa ( Student of Paride Venturi) . Rafael teaches a wide variety of voices both make and female from countries that go from Japan, Germany , Italy, USA, France,Denmark, Korea, Hong Kong, the U.K, Sweden, Costa Rica and of course Spain.
Rumor has it that he might come back on stage in the nearby future as a lírico-spinto tenor.
The legacy
This is my legacy. I am a 3rd generation Melocchi student. My Maestro McCray studied under Mario del Monaco, who studied under Arturo Melocchi. I am in touch with Maestros that have learned this method through different students of Melocchi, first or second generation. The goal is to research as much as one can to obtain as man6 tools as possible. Only then can you help your students.
Arturo Melocchi
Arturo di Giuseppe Melocchi (December 9, 1879 – October 25, 1960) was an Italian baritone and voice teacher who is best known for having been the teacher of dramatic tenor Mario Del Monaco and his older brother Marcello Del Monaco. Also whose method influenced the voice and technical development of tenor Franco Corelli.
Arturo Melocchi was born in Milan. He studied at the Regio Conservatory di Milano under Giuseppe Gallignani, who was also the director of the Conservatory. On November 13, 1907 Melocchi graduated, receiving his license to be a singer, as well as to become a teacher of singing at any public school in Italy.
Melocchi became a teacher of singing at the Conservatory, appointed by Gallignani. In January 1912 he was called to take the title the Chair of Singing at the Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro.
Around 1932 a young Mario del Monaco —whose voice had been dangerously lightened in his studies with Luisa Melai-Palazzini, destroying its natural emission and timbre—began to consult and take lessons from Melocchi, who reeducated his voice with the appropriate exercises, gradually returning it its power, its breadth and natural ease, and giving it its full homogeneity along the entire range from low B♭ to high D♭. However, not yet satisfied with the progress he had achieved, Del Monaco began to make up and add to his technique, in order to get more from his vocal organs. In 1936, Del Monaco won a prize that gave him the opportunity to study his craft at Teatro dell’opera di Roma. This experience, in which he was again assigned inappropriate light repertoire, caused him to lose his voice nearly completely. In 1938, he returned to Pesaro, where he attempted to resume his studies with Melocchi. At first Melocchi did not take Del Monaco back, but at the insistence of Rina Filippini (later Del Monaco's wife), Melocchi accepted the tenor into his studio, and within six months, Del Monaco's voice was rebuilt to the state that quickly carried him forward to becoming the greatest dramatic tenor of the mid-20th century.
By 1949, Mario Del Monaco had become a star, and meanwhile Carlo Scaravelli had begun studying with Melocchi. Corelli was so impressed both by Del Monaco and by Scaravelli's improvement, that he went to meet Melocchi. According to Corelli, he met and took lessons from Melocchi only a few times. Corelli still could not abandon his work in Ancona, so he devised a plan: when Scaravelli would return to Ancona by train from his lessons in Pesaro, Corelli would meet him at the station; Scaravelli would relay the contents and concepts from the lesson, and then the two would go to the old Corelli family house in Via Mamiani, which was in ruins from the war and was still uninhabited, and there they would practice together. They continued in this fashion for all of 1949, Corelli's own voice improving enormously. This provided Corelli with enough knowledge and technique to begin to pursue what would become his first successes at Spoleto and in Rome.
Mario del Monaco
Del Monaco was born in Florence, into a musical upper-class family, to a Neapolitan father and to a mother of Sicilian descent.[2] As a young boy he studied the violin but had a passion for singing. He graduated from the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro, where he first met and sang with Renata Tebaldi, with whom he would form something of an operatic dream team of the 1950s. His early mentors as a singer included Arturo Melocchi, his teacher at Pesaro, and Cherubino Raffaelli, who recognized his talent and helped launch his career.
That career began in earnest with Del Monaco's debut on 31 December 1940 as Pinkertonat the Puccini Theater in Milan. (His initial appearance in an opera had occurred the previous year, however, in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana in Pesaro.) He sang in Italy during the Second World War and married, in 1941, Rina Filipini. In 1946, he appeared at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for the first time. During the ensuing years he became famous not only in London but also across the operatic world for his powerful voice and heroic acting style. It was almost heldentenor-like in scope but Del Monaco was no Wagnerian, confining his activities overwhelmingly to the Italian repertoire. He sang Wagner in concerts, from Lohengrin and Die Walküre.
As Otello
Del Monaco sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1951 to 1959, enjoying particular success in dramatic Verdi parts such as Radamès. He soon established himself as one of four Italian tenor superstars who reached the peak of their fame in the 1950s and '60s, the others being Giuseppe Di Stefano, Carlo Bergonzi and Franco Corelli. Del Monaco's trademark roles during this period were Giordano's Andrea Chénier and Verdi's Otello. He first tackled Otello in 1950 and kept refining his interpretation throughout his career. It is said that he sang Otello 427 times. However, the book published by Elisabetta Romagnolo, Mario Del Monaco, Monumentum aere perennius, Azzali 2002, lists only 218 appearances by him as Otello, which is a more realistic figure. He was buried in his Otello costume. Although Otello was his best role, throughout his career, Del Monaco sang a number of other roles with great acclaim, for example: Canio in Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Radames in Aida (Verdi), Don Jose in Carmen(Bizet), Chenier in Andrea Chénier (Giordano), Manrico in Il trovatore (Verdi), Samson in Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saëns), and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino (Verdi).
Del Monaco made his first recordings in Milan in 1948 for HMV. Later, he was partnered by Renata Tebaldi in a long series of Verdi and Puccini operas recorded for Decca. On the same label was his 1969 recording of Giordano's Fedora, opposite Magda Olivero and Tito Gobbi.
His ringing voice and virile appearance earned him the nickname of the "Brass Bull of Milan".[3]
The soprano Magda Olivero noted in an interview with Stefan Zucker that:
When Del Monaco and I sang Francesca da Rimini together at La Scala [in 1959] he explained his whole vocal technique to me. When he finished I said, "My dear Del Monaco, if I had to put into practice all the things you’ve told me, I’d stop singing right away and just disappear." The technique was so complicated: you push the larynx down, then you push this up, then you do that—in short, it made my head spin just to hear everything he did.[4]
In 1975 he retired from the stage. He died in Mestre as a result of nephritis.
His son Giancarlo Del Monaco is an opera director and theatre manager; his niece Donella Del Monaco, a soprano, is the singer of Opus Avantra.
James McCray
After serving with the United States Marine Corps in Korea, James McCrayattended the Mannes School of Music in New York City.
He then won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the American Opera Auditions and many other awards, including the Sullivan Foundation and the Rene Schon Awards. He made his professional debut at the Stratford Ontario Festival in Canada.
He sang Jimmy in Kurt Weil’s and Berthol Brecht’s Mahagonny, under the direction of the great French-Canadian actor Jean Gascon.
Following three years at the Israeli National Opera singing over 300 performances of such roles as “Riccardo” in Ballo in Maschera, “Don Jose” in Carmen, “Cavaradossi” in Tosca, “Canio” in I Pagliacci, “Manrico” in Il Trovatore and Samson. He then returned to New York and made his Lincoln Center debut by replacing Placido Domingo in Giordano’s Fedora under the baton of Eve Queller.
Mr. McCray was engaged for three consecutive years (1974-1976) by the Greater Miami Opera Association where he sang in the Crucible, The Flying Dutchman and Otello, all conducted by Emerson Buckley. During the same years Mr.McCray was the principal tenor at the St.Paul Minnessota Opera Festival.He sang in Carlyle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, La Fanciulla del West and Carmen with such american singer as: Nancy Wilson, Jeanine Crader and Vern Shinall.
In the same Festival he sang Die Walküre and Siegfried which were the first installments of the Gramma Fischer Ring Cycle, conducted by Edwin MacArthurwhich was later produced in Seattle.
In 1975 he opened the Seattle Ring Festival as Siegfried with Anna Green as Brunhilde and George London as stage director. He then returned to Seattle for three seasons singing “Siegmund” as well as “Siegfried” and Götterdämmerung, in addition to “Don Jose” in Carmen. He also sang “Rienzi” in its first stage production in 90 years in San Antonio Texas ,with John Mauceri as musical director, where he had the opportunity to meet and become friends with Friedelind Wagner.
During the same period he made his debut at the San Francisco Opera as Manrico in “Il Trovatore” and The New York City Opera as Don Jose in “Carmen.
In 1979 Mr. McCray returned to Lincoln Center to sing Rossini’s “Mosé in Egitto” with Justino Diaz as his father. Later at the The New York City Opera he sang Avito in Montemezzi’s “L’amore dei tre Re” with Samuel Ramey, conducted by John Mauceri with regie by Frank Corsaro.
This role he had previously had sung at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C with Carole Nebbet and Jerome Hines.
Also during this period Mr.McCray sang many orchestral concerts with such conductors as Zubin Metha, James Levine, Charles Wilson, Brian Priestman, among others.
He also sang in concert the first act of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre with several different sopranos among whom were Eileen Farrel, under the musical direction of Charles Wilson, Jessye Norman and Johanna Meier.In addition to these concerts, Mr McCray sang the 3rd act of Tristan and Isolde with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga New York under the direction of Denis Russel Davies, with Deborah Polaski as “Isolde”.
At the urging of Jessye Norman, James McCray joined Giancarlo del Monaco in Kassel, Germany in september 1981 for Otello and Tristan. In april that year, he had sung Parsifal at the Dutch Opera in Amsterdam under the musical direction of Edo de Waart. During this period he had the opportunity to study with Mario del Monaco and his wife Rina at Villa Luise in Lanceniego (Italy). Previously Mr.McCray had studied with Raymond Buckingham, a protégé of the great Italian baritone Riccardo Stracciari.
One of the most major influences on Mr. McCray was the great American soprano Patricia Newway, the original “Magda” in Giancarlo Menotti’s “The Consul”. He studied all the basic concepts of operatic acting with her at the Mannes school in New York City.
During the 80’s and early 90’s Mr.McCray sang in varoius European Theaters including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Copenhaguen, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Prague, Catania, Cagliari, Oslo, Rouen, Toulon, Nantes, Angier, Orange and Bordeaux among others.
In addition to singing “Sigfried” in August Everding’s Ring in Warsaw, Poland in 1989 and 1990, he has sang over 100 performances of Tristan and Isolde including a production in Brussels with Gwynneth Jones,conducted by Sylvan Camberline , L’Opera de Montreal with Berit Lindholm regie by Roberto Oswald and costumes by Anibal Lapiz , and in Nancy, France, with Liesbeth Baltslev and in Freiburg (Germany) with Deborah Polaski, singing her first Isolde.And in Bordeaux (France) with Linda Kelm, conducted by Pincus Steinberg and sets and costumes by Daniel Ogier. With the stage director Giancarlo del Monaco he has performed the principal tenor role in several productions including Otello, Il Tabarro and Tannhäuser,with sets and costumes by the great designer Michael Scott.
In Europe, Mr. McCray has worked under the musical direction of Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Alain Lombard, Jose Lopez Cobos, Gerd Albrecht, Pincas Steinberg, Adam Fischer, Sylvan Camberling, Woldemar Nelson, Hans Wallat, Marc Suistrot, Bruno Weil, Alexander Sander, Matteus Kunsch and Eugene Kohn among others.
Mr. McCray has sang every Wagnerian opera for heroic tenor, from Liebesvertod and Die Feen to Parsifal. Mr. McCray has sang the Wagnerian repertoire in various Italian opera houses including La Fenice in Venice, where he also sang Fritz in Franz Schreker’s Der Ferne Klang with Sylvia Sass, under the musical direction of Gabriele Ferro. During this period Mr. McCray sang in several productions of Otello in theaters such as Split, Hamburg, Zagreb, Graz, Gent Liege, Prague, Bratislava, and Miami Florida.
Mr. McCray’s last performance was Pollione in Bellini’s “Norma” with the great yugoslavian soprano Radmila Bakocivic at the May Festival in Skopje, Macedonia in 1996. Since then taught in Yugoslavia, Italy, Germany, San Francisco (California) and in The Hague.
James McCray sadly passed away on January 31st 2018.