Calvin W. Marsh

Epitaph

Description

Opera Singer. A baritone, he shall be remembered both for his 13 years at the Metropolitan Opera and for his later long career in sacred music. Raised in the central Pennsylvania coal fields, he took to music early and following his high school graduation answered an advertisment placed by the director of a Trenton, New Jersey, church choir who was willing to trade voice lessons for participation in his ensemble. Showing sufficient promise that he was awarded a scholarship to the Westminster Choir College where the director held a faculty position, his education was to be interrupted by his three years service with the US Army Air Corps in the South Pacific during World War II; resuming his training, he won the American Theater Wing Auditions, his prize being a solo recital at New York's Town Hall, then entered the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air where he garnered a contract with the venerable company. Mr. Marsh made his Metropolitan debut on November 11, 1954, as Nachtigall from Wagner's "Die Meistersinger" and over the next 13 seasons was to be heard a total of 911 times in about 150 roles. Originally he was to take on such parts as the Jailer in Puccini's "Tosca", the Marquis D'Obigny and Baron Duphol from Verdi's "La Traviata", Schmidt in Umberto Giordano's "Andrea Chenier", Count Ceprano and Marullo of Verdi's "Rigoletto", a Guard in Jules Massenet's "Manon", Yamadori and the Commissioner from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", a Steersman in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", Silvio from Leoncavallo's "I Pagliacci", a Gypsy in Verdi's "Il Trovatore", Morales and Dancaire of Bizet's "Carmen", and a Nazarene in Richard Strauss' "Salome". With time he was heard in such major venues as Geneva, Munich, Glyndeborne, and Mexico City and was to move up to such leading roles as the tragic jester "Rigoletto", Count di Luna in "Il Trovatore", the elder Germont in "La Traviata", Tonio from "I Pagliacci", Marcello in Puccini's "La Boheme", and the doomed title hero of Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra". Mr. Marsh experienced a religious conversion at a Madison Square Garden Billy Graham Crusade, gave his final Metropolitan performance on August 22, 1967, and devoted the remainder of his life to Christian music, appearing at churches and festivals, making a number of records, and for 30 years singing the role of Simon Peter in presentations of Jerome Hines' Biblical opera "I Am the Way". He lived his last 25 years in Dallas, died of a stroke, and can be heard on his religious recordings, on a number of complete opera sets from early in his career, and on countless archived Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.