Paul Shearer Althouse

Paul Shearer Althouse (December 2, 1889 – February 6, 1954) was an American opera singer. He began his career as a lyric tenor with a robust Italianate sound, in roles including Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana. He later branched out into the dramatic tenor repertoire, finding success in portraying Wagnerian heroes. He sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 30 years.

Althouse sang as a boy soprano in the choir of his hometown's Episcopal Church. He received his first voice lessons at the church from Evelyn Essick. He studied music at Bucknell University and then singing privately with Perley Dunn Aldrich in Philadelphia and Oscar Saenger and Percy Rector Stevens in New York City. He made his professional opera debut with the Philadelphia-Chicago Grand Opera Company as Gounod's Faust in an out of town engagement in New York City.

Althouse debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in a small role in The Magic Flute on November 23, 1912. His first major assignment with that company came on March 19, 1913, as Grigory in the United States premiere of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. He was notably the first American tenor without European experience to sing at the Met. they had two daughters, and divorced in 1930. He remarried, to Klaire Shoup, in 1936.

Althouse remained at the Met through 1920, during which time he participated in the world premieres of Victor Herbert's Madeleine (François, 1914), Umberto Giordano’s Madame Sans-Gêne (Neipperg, 1915), Reginald de Koven's The Canterbury Pilgrims (Squire, 1917), Charles Wakefield Cadman’s Shanewis (Lionel, 1918) and Joseph Carl Breil’s The Legend (Stephen, 1919). His other roles at the house during these years included: Cavaradossi in Tosca, Froh in Das Rheingold, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Nicias in Thaïs, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Uin-San-Lui in Franco Leoni's L'Oracolo, Walther in Tannhäuser, Vladimir in Prince Igor, and the title role in Oberon. subsequently making his first foray into the heavier repertoire at the PCOC as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde on March 25, 1926. He continued to perform with the PGOC annually through 1929 in such roles as Canio in Pagliacci, Pinkerton, Radamès in Aida, Siegmund in Die Walküre, and Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. and was buried in Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.