Cornell MacNeil (September 24, 1922 – July 15, 2011) was an American operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

known for his exceptional voice and long career with the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

, which spanned 642 performances in twenty-six roles. ''

Opera News ''Opera News'' was an American classical music magazine. It was published from 1936 to 2023 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild—a non-profit organization, located at Lincoln Center, that was founded to promote opera and support the Metropolitan ...

'' opined he "was a great baritone in era of great baritones — Warren, Gobbi, Merrill, Milnes — and in the contemporary press, comparisons to his colleagues were frequent. But MacNeil's performances had singular musical richness, and moral and intellectual complexity that were his alone. MacNeil may have had rivals, but he had no equals."

Life and career

Cornell MacNeil was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

to a dentist and a singer. He was interested in opera from a young age, but suffered from severe asthma, which also contributed to his rejection from World War II. He then took on a wartime job as a lathe operator, after which, on his mother's advice, began his vocal studies. Among his teachers were Friedrich Schorr and Dick Marzollo. Before the end of the war, he sang and made announcements for the Radio City Music Hall Glee Club, for whose audience he announced the surrenders of the German and the Japanese at the end of the war. After a brief audition, he was cast by the composer and director Gian Carlo Menotti as the male lead in his opera, ''

The Consul ''The Consul'' is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Performance history Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as t ...

'', which opened on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia. He debuted with the New York City Opera in 1953 as Germont in ''La traviata'' and the Metropolitan Opera House in 1959 as the lead in ''Rigoletto''. In 1959, he debuted in La Scala in ''Ernani''. In 1969, he became president of the

American Guild of Musical Artists The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) is the labor union of singers, dancers, and staging staff in opera, ballet and contemporary dance, and concert choral performance in the United States. A national union with a membership of over 6,500 ...

. MacNeil's voice was notable for its size and top notes. Despite some vocal decline in the late 1970s, he maintained a high standard throughout his long career. Two of his most notable roles were the title role in ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...

'', and Iago in ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the La Scala, Teatro alla Scala, M ...

''. MacNeil was a regular at the Metropolitan Opera. His debut was on March 21, 1959, as Rigoletto. Rigoletto was also the role he sang the most at the Met, 104 times, including the Met's first telecast of that opera in 1977, in the production by John Dexter. MacNeil was also well known for the role of Baron Scarpia in ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...

'', a role he sang 92 times at the Met between November 2, 1959, and December 5, 1987, which was his last performance with the company. He appeared at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...

in 1959 (''Ernani'', with Franco Corelli) and in 1960 (''Aida'').

Abridged discography

* Menotti: ''The Consul'' (Neway, Powers; Engel, 1950)

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

* Verdi: ''La traviata'': excerpts (Kirsten, Hayward; Cellini, 1958) iveVAI * Puccini: ''La fanciulla del West'' (Tebaldi, del Monaco, Tozzi; Capuana, 1958) Decca Records * Verdi: ''Aïda'' (Tebaldi, Simionato, Bergonzi; Karajan, 1959) Decca Records * Leoncavallo: ''Pagliacci'' (Tucci, del Monaco; Molinari-Pradelli, 1959) Decca Records * Mascagni: ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (Simionato, del Monaco; Serafin, 1960) Decca Records * Verdi: ''Un ballo in maschera'' (Nilsson, Simionato, Bergonzi; Solti, 1960–1) Decca Records * Verdi: ''Rigoletto'' (Sutherland, Cioni, Siepi; Sanzogno, 1961) Decca Records * Verdi: ''Luisa Miller'' (Moffo, Verrett, Bergonzi, Tozzi, Flagello; Cleva, 1965)

RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...

* Verdi: ''Rigoletto'' (Grist, Gedda; Molinari-Pradelli, 1967)

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

* Leoncavallo: ''Pagliacci'' (Carlyle, Vickers; Bartoletti, 1968) iveVAI * Verdi: ''La traviata'' (Stratas, Domingo; Levine, 1982) Elektra

Abridged videography

* Puccini: ''Tosca'' (Pobbe, Raimondi; Argento, 1965) ive* Verdi: ''Rigoletto'' (Cotrubaș, Domingo, Díaz; Levine, Dexter, 1977) ive* Verdi: ''Otello'' (Scotto, Vickers; Levine, Zeffirelli/Melano, 1978) ive* Puccini: ''Tosca'' (Verrett, Pavarotti, Tajo; Conlon, Gobbi, 1978) ive* Weill: ''Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny'' (Stratas, Varnay, Cassilly, Plishka; Levine, Dexter, 1979) ive* Puccini: ''Il tabarro'' (Scotto; Levine, Melano, 1981) ive* Verdi: '' La traviata'' (Stratas, Domingo; Levine, Zeffirelli, 1982) * Zandonai: ''Francesca da Rimini'' (Scotto, Rom, Domingo; Levine, Faggioni, 1984) ive* Puccini: ''Tosca'' (Behrens, Domingo; Sinopoli, Zeffirelli, 1985) ive

References

External links

Interview with Cornell MacNeil
by Bruce Duffie, November 11, 1982 {{DEFAULTSORT:MacNeil, Cornell 1922 births 2011 deaths American operatic baritones Musicians from Minneapolis Grammy Award winners Singers from Minnesota 20th-century American male opera singers Classical musicians from Minnesota