Duncan, (Robert) Todd
Duncan, (Robert) Todd
Duncan, (Robert) Todd, black American baritone; b. Danville, Ky, Feb. 12, 1903; d. Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 1998. He was educated at Butler Univ. in Indianapolis (B.A., 1925) and at Columbia Univ. Teachers Coll. (M.A., 1930); then taught voice at Harvard Univ. in Washington, D.C. (until 1945). In 1934 he made his operatic debut with the Aeolian Opera in N.Y. as Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana. On Oct. 10,1935, he created the role of Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in N.Y., and subsequently sang in revivals of the score. He was the first black American to become a member of a major opera company when he made his first appearance at the N.Y. Opera City on Sept. 28, 1945, as Tonio. He appeared as Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stars (1949–50), winning both the Donaldson and N.Y. Drama Critics’ Circle awards in 1950.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire