Guest
James McCray - American heroic tenor On February 21 2021, he could have turned 87 years old. Wagner - Love Duet from Tristan & Isolde Tristan - James J. McCray Isolde - Birit Lindholm Montreal 1986 James McCray was born on February 21, 1934 and attended the Mannes School of Music in New York. In 1962, he won an audition for the National Council of the Metropolitan Opera. In 1965 McCrae sang the second part from Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and Francesco from Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini at the Concert Opera Association of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Later that year, he performed at the Stratford Festival in Canada as Jim Mahoney in Kurt Weill's opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. James McCrae was invited to the Israel National Opera from 1965 to 1968 and performed such leading roles as Canio in Paliachi, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Don Jose in Carmen, Manrico in Troubadour, Riccardo in Bulletin in Mascara and Samson in Samson and Delilah. “ He made his debut at the New York Opera in 1969 as Vladimir Igorevich in Borodin's opera Prince Igor. In 1970 he sang the part of Conte Loris Ipanov in Giordano's Fyodora with the New York Opera Orchestra conducted by Yves Kehler. On March 26, 1971, he appeared at the world premiere of Harold Farberman's The Losers as Ken at the Juilliard Opera House in New York. Also in 1971, he played Dick Johnson in Puccini's Funciulla del West at the Minnesota Opera and Manrico at the San Francisco Opera. From 1974 to 1976, McCrae sang annually with the Greater Miami Opera Society in Robert Ward's The Crucible, as Eric in Wagner's Flying Holding and in the title role of Verdi's Othello. At the 1975 Seattle Ring Festival, he starred in Wagner's Siegfried. In subsequent years, he sang in Seattle's operatic roles such as Siegmund in The Wolf and Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdammerung. He also sang the title role in Wagner's Rienzi at the San Antonio Opera, Texas, conducted by John Moseri. In 1979, James McCrae returned to the New York Opera as Osiris in Rossini's Moses in Egitto. In this troupe he also played Avito in Montemezzi's opera Amore dei Tre Re with Samuel Ramey, directed by John Morseri and Frank Corsaro. He also performed there with Carol Neblett and Jerome Hines, among others. James McCrae made his debut in De Nederlandse Operastichting on June 6, 1981 with Parsifal under the direction of Edo de Vaart. In September 1981, he performed the title roles in Othello, Tristan and Isolde directed by Giancarlo del Monaco in Kassel. McCrae has sung the role of Tristan in Tristan et Isolde more than 100 times, including in Brussels with Gwyneth Jones, in L'Opéra de Montreal with Berit Lindholm, in Nancy with Lisbeth Balslev, in Freiburg with Deborah Polaski and in Bordeaux with Linda Kelm ... .. He could be heard as Siegmund in a live performance of the first act of “Die Walküre“ alongside sopranos such as Eileen Farrell, Jesse Norman and Joanna Mayer. He sang the title role in Verdi's opera Othello in places such as Split, Hamburg, Zagreb, Graz, Ghent, Liege, Prague, Bratislava and Miami. At the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, he played Fritz in Schrecker's Der ferne Klang with Sylvia Sass under the direction of Gabriele Ferro. Other roles in his repertoire were Lucio “Das Liebesverbot“, the main role in “Tannhäuser“, Arindal in “Die Feen“ and Luigi in “Tabarro“. James McCray has also performed in Berlin, Munich, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Catania, Cagliari, Oslo, Rouen, Toulon, Nantes, Angers, Orange and Bordeaux and others. He has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, James Levin, Charles Wilson, Brian Priestman, Kent Nagano, Alain Lombard, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Gerd Albrecht, Pinchas Steinberg, Adam Fischer, Sylvain Cambreling, Voldemar Nelson, Mark Hanson. Bruno Weill, Alexander Sander, Matthäus Kunsch and Eugene Cohn. James McCrae retired from the opera scene in May 1996 as Pollione in Bellini's opera Norma in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. Died January 31, 2018 @
