Hale, Robert
Hale, Robert
Hale, Robert, American bass-baritone; b. Kerrville, Tex., Aug. 22, 1943. He studied with Gladys Miller at the New England Cons, of Music in Boston, with Ludwig Bergman at Boston Univ., in Okla., and with Boris Goldovsky in N.Y. In 1965 he made his operatic debut as Mozart’s Figaro in Denver, and then joined the N.Y.C. Opera in 1967. He made guest appearances in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, and other U.S. opera centers. In 1978 he made his European debut in Stuttgart as the Dutchman. He sang Escamillo in Cologne in 1983. After appearing as Scarpia in Berlin in 1987, he sang for the first time at London’s Covent Garden in 1988 as Jochanaan. On Jan. 17, 1990, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as the Dutchman, the same year that he appeared as Pizarro at the Salzburg Festival and as Wotan at the San Francisco Opera. In 1992 he sang Barak at the Salzburg Festival. During the 1992-93 season, he appeared as Wotan in the Ring cycle at the Vienna State Opera, and then sang that role at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1994 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996. He married Inga Nielsen.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire