Opera Greats:

                         

Louis Schaefer

          

Louis Schaefer was born in Allsace-Lorraine in 1815. When he was fifteen his parents moved to a farm near Mapleton, Ohio. When his sister married Martin Wikadal, Louis worked in Wikidal's store on the square in downtown Canton. When he was 21 he organized a school and later with leading citizens set up the public school system here. He pursued literary activities, and theatre, and played the role of Princess of Amalie in Schilller's play The Robbers. In 1840 he studied law with Hiram Griswold and Elijah Grant. His work with Congressman McKinley was able to insure that Diebold would remain in Canton after the panic of 1873. In 1867 he announced the building of Ohio's second Opera House on W. Tuscarawas St. near what is now the Chase Bank Building on the square. He opened to Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice, and brought in major stars including Edwin Booth, Clara Morris, Edwin Forrest and Rhea. He orchestrated an addition to the city which included a circus grounds and park. He founded the fire department, established the Canton Waterworks system, and was asked by President Tyler to serve as U.S. Ambassador to France. His background in German, French and English made him especially suited to that position. He refused the position claiming he had too much to do in Canton. His last words were "I feel the machine has worked out."

 

            
 
Blanche Thebom

Blanche was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania September 19, 1918. Her parents moved to Canton, Ohio shortly after that and Blanche attended the public schools graduating from McKinley High School in 1935. She worked as a secretary and through a Ruth Coogan Scholarship studied voice with Margaret Matzenauer and Edyth Walker in New York. She made her concert debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1941 playing Fricka. In 1944 she played Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde. She was the leading Mezzo-Soprano for the Metropolitan Opera for 22 years and made 356 performances in 28 different roles. She was the first American to sing in the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow. She is remembered especially for her role as Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, and for Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde. After retiring from the Opera, she directed the Southern Regional Opera Company in Atlanta and after a short teaching engagement at the University of Arkansas she founded the Opera Arts Training Program in San Francisco.

   
   
 
 
 
Nadine Secunda
 
Nadine was raised in Canton, Ohio where she appeared in a High School production of the Mikado. She graduated from Oberlin with a degree in piano and music education. She studied under Margaret Harshaw at the University of Indiana. graduating with a Master's degree in piano and music education . She received a Fullbright scholarship enabling her to study in Germany where she received an apprentice contract to sing in the Wiesbaden opera. Four years later she moved to Cologne where she sang in Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, and the Ring. She was invited to play Katia in Katia Kabanova in East Berlin under the director, Harry Kupfer. Auditioning for Suicidio, she found he work was voted "Production of the Year" in Germany. She has spent much of her career in Europe. She played Elsa and Sieglinde at the Bayreuth Festival in 1987 and 1988.The Walküre recording received rave reviews and a comment that the partnership with Pol Emling as Siegmund " was passionately moving yet dangerously fragile, light years away from unconvincing posturing" by previous opera stars. That year she debuted at the Royal Opera House, in London. Later in Chicago she played Elsa and Elizabeth. She assumed the role of Cassandre in Les Troyens in 1991 at Los Angeles. At her first rendering of Brünhilde in Die Götterdämmerung she was honored with an "unimaginable outpouring of audience jubilation." One critic called her best role Chrysothemis in the Strauss opera, Elektra.
 
 
               
           
Irving Barnes            
Irving was born in Canton in and graduated from McKinley High School. He was the first Black to receive National Honors for speech declamation. He moved to New York where in March of 1953 he played Porgie in the Broadway revival of Porgie and Bess. He played in 305 performance in New York and later he appeared in London continuing to play Porgie. In March of 1961 he opened as the Governor in 13 Daughters, a musical set in Hawaii. He was a vocalist on Harry Bellafonte discs from 1977-2001. In 1985 he played Badger in the original Musical adaptation of Wind in the Willows.
      
 
 
Richard Paul Fink
Richard was born in Massillon, Ohio and graduated from Washington High School School where he was Obie the Tiger, Massillon mascot. He began his professional career in the Houston Grand Opera where he played Telramund in Lohengrin , Klingsor in Parsifal, and Okinawa in Salome. From there he brought raves from San Diego to Boston, Vancouver to Montreal and appearances at the Met. He has appeared in the Berlin State Opera, Opera National in Paris, Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, and the Teatro Real in Madrid. His many roles include Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, the title role in Wagner's Fliegende Holländer, Pizzaro in Beethoven's Fidelio, and Alberich in Wagner's Ring. He presented select Wagnerian arias at the first Wagner Symposiums in Canton in 2004. Recently he played Edward Teller in Doctor Atomic.
 
Richard Miller                
Richard was born in Canton, Ohio on April 9, 1926. Singing at a young age, he pursued piano, cello and organ and singing and graduated from Lincoln High School School in 1944. Shortly after graduation he was drafted to the army and at the end of the war he was stationed at Marseilles and took voice lessons at the Marseilles Conservatory. He received his degree, M.Mus. in Musicology at the University of Michigan and receiving a Fulbright Grant to study voice at L'Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. After that he was the leading tenor at the Zurich Opera House for four years. Returning to the U.S. he taught voice at the University of Michigan for five years and at the Oberlin Conservatory for over 40 years. During those years he made appearances in singing with the San Francisco and San Antonio operas and with the Cleveland Orchestra and for five seasons at the Lake Erie Opera Series. He taught internationally for 28 years at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria , at the Paris Conservatoire Superieure, at the Marseilles National Opera, and in venues on three continents. His six books including Training Soprano Voices are considered to have revolutionized the way Voice is taught throughout the world.
               
                       
                         
Ken Cazan                        
Ken was born in Canton, Ohio and is considered today one of America's most popular, controversial and sought after opera theatre stage directors. He received his degree in music from Syracuse University and since has directed, taught, and performed in venues throughout the world. He directed the world premieres of Miss Lonely Hearts at the Juilliard School, Britten's Gloriana, Mozart's Midriate, Re Di Ponto, and Handel's Agrippina, in American venues. He has directed more than 130 productions of operas, music theater and legitimate theater in the U.S., Canada, Italy and Mexico, In Italy he directed Gershwin's Lady Be Good at the Teatro la Fenice, broadcast internationally on RAI television. and in collaboration with Bernstein, La Boheme in Rome. He has recently completed in collaboration with the composer, Billy Pace, the book and lyrics of Prodigy, a musical based on the life and death of Jean-Michel Basquiat. He recently was announced as Director of Wagner's Das Liebesverbot at the Los Angeles Ring in 2010. He is presently Associate Professor and Resident Stage Director of the prestigious Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.