Rains, Leon

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Rains, Leon

Rains, Leon , American bass; b. N.Y., Oct. 1, 1870; d. Los Angeles, June 11, 1954. He studied with Saenger in N.Y. (1891–96) and with Bouhy in Paris. He made a concert tour with Melba in the U.S. (1898), and then was a member of the Dresden Court Opera (1899–1917). He made his first appearance with the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. on Feb. 24, 1909, as Hagen in Gotterdammerung. In 1924 he settled in Los Angeles as a teacher.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire