James Pease

James Pease (9 January 1916, in Indianapolis – 26 April 1967, in New York City) was an American bass-baritone, notable for his Wagnerian roles. He was also a distinguished Balstrode in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, a role which he was the first to perform in the US in 1946, and later recorded under the composer's direction in 1958.

Life and career A law graduate of Indiana University in 1939, Pease won a scholarship at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia and studied there rather than begin practice as a lawyer. At AVA he studied voice with Edgar Milton Cooke. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Opera Company as Mephistopheles in Faust, and sang many other roles with the company both in Philadelphia and in Boston. He also pursued concert, oratorio and radio work on the East Coast of the United States He was praised by Serge Koussevitzky as having "An exceptionally beautiful, powerful, expansive voice".

In 1943 he was selected a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, but was immediately called for service as an aviation cadet. He served three years as a pilot in the A.A.F. Training Command, flying some 15,000 miles. He also directed and performed in musical shows at his home base in Texas. Pease later sang in the US premiere of another Britten opera, Albert Herring, this time as the Vicar, Mr Gedge, in a production staged at Tanglewood on 8 August 1949, conducted by Boris Goldovsky. With the Zurich Opera in 1961 he sang the priest Grigoris in the world premiere of Martinů's The Greek Passion.

Pease sang a wide variety of roles including Leporello and the title role in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Colline (La bohème), Escamillo (Carmen) and various Gilbert and Sullivan roles including the Pirate King and the Mikado of Japan.

In London's Royal Opera House he sang in various productions conducted by Rafael Kubelík, including as Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger with Geraint Evans and Joan Sutherland in 1957, as King Mark in Tristan und Isolde with Birgit Nilsson in 1958, and in the same year as Balstrode in Peter Grimes, later recording the role under the composer's direction for Decca.

He returned to the New York City Opera in 1959–60, and again in 1967.

Personal life He married twice, his second marriage after his first wife's death being with English soprano Adele Leigh; after Pease's death, Leigh in 1967 married Kurt Enderl, then Austrian Ambassador to Hungary, in a whirlwind romance.

Discography James Pease recorded with several companies, notably Decca, RCA Victor, and Nonesuch Records.