Merrill, Robert

views updated

MERRILL, ROBERT

MERRILL, ROBERT (1917–2004), U.S. baritone singer. Born in New York City, Merrill studied with his mother, Lillian Miller Merrill, then, from 1936, with Samuel Margolies. His professional career began in popular music, at the Radio City Music Hall (1943); but he made his operatic début in 1944, in Aida. The following year, having won an audition contest sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Company, he made his début there as Germont in La Traviata, and remained one of its leading singers, except for the season 1951–52, owing to his appearance in a Hollywood film, of which the Metropolitan's general manager, Rudolph Bing, disapproved. Merrill was a Verdi and Puccini singer of great power and richness and a favorite performer of Arturo Toscanini's last years. Among his recordings are famous arias from Carmen, The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, Hamlet, and L'Africaine, and songs.

[Max Loppert]

More From encyclopedia.com