The British press report the death of baritone Peter Glossop. It's sad to read of the passing of yet another opera singer whose performances made my first two decades of opera-going so exciting. Glossop made his Met house debut as Scarpia (with Bumbry and Corelli) in the TOSCA that also marked James Levine's Met debut. Earlier I had seen him in a concert performance of LA WALLY at Carnegie Hall with Tebaldi and Bergonzi. Peter Glossop was my first Wozzeck in a series of performances that featured James Levine's first interpretation of the Berg masterpiece. A few years later when I was living in Hartford, Peter Glossop appeared there opposite Gilda Cruz-Romo in OTELLO and with Teresa Zylis-Gara in TOSCA. (Photo: Glossop as Billy Budd, an early career success).
Above: cast page from his Met TOSCA. You might wonder why this program isn't autographed since I was a real stage-door Johnny at that time. But aside from Glossop's very exciting debut and a star-turn Cavaradossi from Franco Corelli, it was a very erratic performance. Bumbry was trying out a soprano role for the first time - unsuccessfully in my view, though she (of course) won a big ovation - and Levine for me was all surface exctement and too much volume. One of these days I'll have to put my diary entry from that performance on the blog.
Anyway, I assumed Mr. Glossop would have left after Act II; I had Franco's autograph many times over. I wasn't interested in meeting Levine and I would not have known what to say to Bumbry...maybe "You jumped well!" So I skipped the fan scene that day.
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