Hugh Roderick Thompson, known on the stage as Hugh Thompson, (June 19, 1915 – February 6, 2006) was an American opera singer. He was a leading baritone at 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 ...

between 1944 and 1953 for 238 performances. In 1967 he moved to

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Greater Downtown Miami, Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

, joining the Miami Opera Guild as the assistant artistic director, and later taught voice at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

. He died in

Estero, Florida Estero (Spanish for "estuary") is an incorporated village in Lee County, Florida, United States, located directly beside the first aquatic nature preserve established in Florida: The Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve, otherwise referred to as Estero B ...

, at the age of 90.

Early years

Thompson was born in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, on June 19, 1915. His father was Oscar Thompson, a

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

and author. His grandfather was William Thompson, an author, poet, lawyer, and Olympic archer. Hugh attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

and moved to New York City to attend the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

in 1936. He made his professional debut in 1939, starring in Mozart's ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienn ...

'' at

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...

. In February 1944, Thompson was on the inaugural roster of the fledgling

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...

. In December 1944, he won a contract with the Metropolitan Opera via their Auditions of the Air.

Opera career

Thompson made his Met debut in December 1944, as Schaunard in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'', a performance that won praise from the music critic of ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative Online newspaper, news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) onlin ...

'' – who was Hugh's father. Thompson played the warden Frank in Garson Kanin's 1950 staging of ''

Die Fledermaus ' (, ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874. Background The original literary source for ' was ...

'' and sang 31 Met performances of the role, the last of which was broadcast on CBS's '' Omnibus''. It was his final performance for the Met. Thompson performed in 238 productions before leaving the Met in 1953. He also worked as a director, staging ''Figaro'' in St. Louis in 1955 and ''La bohème'' at the Met in 1963.

Later years

In 1967, he moved to

, joining the Miami Opera Guild as the assistant artistic director under director Arturo di Filippi, and later taught voice at the

and ran their opera workshop until he retired in 1979. He died of cancer in Estero, Florida, at the age of 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Hugh Roderick 1915 births 2006 deaths Singers from Tacoma, Washington American operatic baritones American opera directors University of Washington School of Music alumni Juilliard School alumni University of Miami faculty