Robert Merrill -Baritone.New York Yankees Fixture, Dead @ 85

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Robert Merrill -Baritone.New York Yankees Fixture, Dead @ 85

Postby mach1 » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:30 pm

Robert Merrill, Operatic Baritone and New York
Yankees Fixture, Has Died at 85

By Elizabeth LeSure
Associated Press - 26 October 2004


NEW YORK (AP) — Acclaimed singer Robert Merrill, the opera
baritone who felt equally comfortable on opening night at the
Metropolitan Opera House and opening day at Yankee
Stadium, has died.

Merrill died Saturday [23 October] at his home in suburban
New York City, family friend Barry Tucker said Monday.
Reference books gave conflicting ages for Merrill, 87 or 85.

Merrill performed around the country with Tucker's father,
tenor Richard Tucker, the younger man said. "My father felt
that he had the greatest natural voice that America created"
he said.

Merrill, once described in Time magazine as "one of the
Met's best baritones," became as well-known to New York
Yankees fans for his season-opening rendition of "The Star-
Spangled Banner" — a tradition that began in 1969.

In his 31 consecutive seasons with the Metropolitan
Opera, Merrill performed virtually every baritone role in
the operatic repertoire.

He earned admiration for his interpretations of dozens of
roles, including Escamillo in Carmen and Figaro in The
Barber of Seville, reportedly his favorite opera.

Merrill once said opera "is the toughest art of all."

"It's a human instrument," he said. "Your voice, so many
words, so much music. ... There's a lot of emotion."

Merrill was known for a velvet-smooth voice. Critics
wrote that Merrill "worked hard to polish his natural rich
baritone" and that he "noticeably improved each season."

Merrill retired from the Met in 1976 but returned to its stage
in 1983, when the company marked its centennial.

"Few leading singers have graced the company with so
many performances," Opera News said in 1996. "None have
served it with more honor."

Throughout his career, Merrill sang with popular stars ranging
from Frank Sinatra to Louis Armstrong, appeared worldwide at
music festivals and made numerous recordings. Merrill
performed as a soloist with many of the world's great
conductors, including Leonard Bernstein. He also appeared for
several presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.

He also was a well-established radio and television soloist,
beginning his television career on NBC's Saturday Night
Revue in 1949.

Merrill's lifelong enthusiasm for baseball led to his long tenure
at Yankee Stadium, where he sang the national anthem on
opening day for three decades.

Merrill, who often appeared in a pinstriped shirt and
tattered Yankees necktie, performed the same duty for the
Yankees during the World Series, the playoffs and at
Old-timers Day.

He took the job seriously and once said he didn't appreciate
when singers tried to ad lib with "distortions."

"When you do the anthem, there's a legitimacy to it," Merrill
told Newsday in 2000. "I'm bothered by these different
interpretations of it."

Merrill made his operatic debut in 1944, singing Amonasro
in Aida on a Trenton, New Jersey stage. He signed on
with the Metropolitan Opera in 1945 and debuted there that
year as the elder Germont in La traviata.

"Mr. Merrill displayed a rich, vigorous baritone, ample in
volume, effortlessly and surely produced," critic Robert A.
Hague wrote at the time.

Merrill was briefly married to soprano Roberta Peters in the
early 1950s; the two remained friendly and performed
together after the marriage ended.

Merrill was born the son of shoe salesman Abraham Merrill
and Lillian Balaban. His mother had an operatic and concert
career in Poland before her marriage and guided her son
through his early musical training.

Growing up in Brooklyn, Merrill was first inspired by music
as a teenager when he saw a Metropolitan Opera performance
of Il trovatore. The young baritone paid for singing lessons
with extra money he earned as a semipro pitcher.

Merrill is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter and
grandchildren, Tucker said.

--

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