Frank Guarrera

Frank Guarrera (December 3, 1923 – November 23, 2007) was an Italian-American lyric baritone who enjoyed a long and distinguished career at the Metropolitan Opera, singing with the company for a total of 680 performances. He performed 35 different roles at the Met, mostly from the Italian and French repertories, from 1948 through 1976. His most frequent assignments at the house were as Escamillo in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Marcello in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème, Valentin in Charles Gounod's Faust, and Ping in Puccini's Turandot. He was also an admired interpreter of Mozart roles, establishing himself in the parts of both Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. Most of the roles he portrayed were from the lyric repertoire, such as the title role in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, but he also sang some heavier roles at the Met like Amonasro in Aïda, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West and Il conte di Luna in Il trovatore.

He sang at the Met during a "golden age of baritones" whose members also included Robert Weede, Tito Gobbi, Cornell MacNeil, Sherrill Milnes and Anselmo Colzani. The Times said that "Frank Guarrera was a rare all-rounder, a singer whose competence, versatility, intelligence, good stage presence and the absence of inflated ideas of his own importance made him a valued colleague and the kind of stalwart company member that opera managers dream about."

Guarrera made his professional debut as Silvio in I Pagliacci, at the New York City Opera in 1947. That same year he appeared at the Tanglewood Music Festival as the voice of the Oracle of Neptune in Mozart's Idomeneo. Shortly after, he won the Metropolitan Opera's Auditions of the Air which led to his being offered a Met contract by then general manager Edward Johnson. The competition win also brought him to the attention of conductor Arturo Toscanini, who invited Guarrera to make his La Scala debut as Fanuel in Arrigo Boito's Nerone in 1948. Guarrerra said of the experience of singing Nerone for the first time,For all I knew, it could have been by Beethoven. I was taken to Toscanini's studio at NBC. That was Studio 8H, the famous one, and of course his dressing room was like a huge apartment. We walked into this gorgeous living room with a grand piano, and there he was, this little guy, with his pince-nez glasses. After some small talk in Italian, he put his hand on my shoulder and asked me to sing. So I unbuttoned my collar -- I had no fear whatsoever -- and I sang. Later, Toscanini's son, Walter, spoke to me. "Well, Mr. Guarrera, my dad would like to invite you to sing at La Scala. Will you be able to make it? Are you busy?" And that's how I made my debut in Milan. I sang the last two acts of Nerone, fully staged, under Toscanini, in a program that opened with the Mefistofele prologue. The bass playing the devil was a young man named Cesare Siepi. Little did I know that someone recorded that performance. But this thing exists, and if you play it at the right speed, it's not bad.

Guarrera also appeared frequently in Chicago and Los Angeles and made opera appearances in London and Paris.

Later life and career Following his retirement from the stage, Guarrera joined the voice faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle through the invitation of former Met colleague Mary Curtis Verna, who was then chair of the university's voice department. He taught at the school from 1980 to 1990, with his most successful students being tenor Timothy Mussard and baritone Mel Ulrich. He quit teaching when his wife Adelina suffered a massive stroke, serving as her primary caretaker until her death in 2000. The couple returned to Philadelphia for their final years together and Guarrera remained in the area for the rest of his life. He and his wife had two children together, Dennis and Valerie. He died at his home in Bellmawr, New Jersey, on November 23, 2007, ten days before his 84th birthday. The cause of death was complications from diabetes.

Recordings Guarrera is featured on complete opera recordings, including Così fan tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, opposite Lily Pons, Faust, Ford in Falstaff under Toscanini, and Cavalleria rusticana. He can also be heard on several live broadcasts from the Met, as well as some of the sets issued by the Metropolitan Opera Record Club.

Awards and honors Frank Guarrera is honored with a mural painted by Peter Pagast at Broad and Tasker Streets in Philadelphia. The mural, painted in 2003, features Guarrera in several of his famous opera roles, including The Barber of Seville and Escamillo, the bullfighter, in Carmen.