Norman Treigle
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Norman Treigle (né Adanelle Wilfred Treigle, on 6 March 1927; died on 16 February 1975) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the fifth and final child of a poor carpenter and his wife. Following his 1946 marriage to the former Loraine Siegel, the bass-baritone began vocal studies with the contralto Elisabeth Wood. In 1947, he made his operatic debut with the New Orleans Opera Association, as the Duke of Verona in Roméo et Juliette. Between 1949 and 1951, he attended Loyola University of the South's College of Music, while acquiring various roles with the local company.
In 1953, Treigle made his New York City Opera debut, as Colline in La bohème. Three years later, the bass-baritone scored his first great success, as the tormented Reverend Olin Blitch, in the New York premiere of Floyd's Susannah. In 1958, he made his European debut in this opera, at the Brussels World's Fair.
In succeeding seasons, Treigle became the leading bass-baritone of the Americas, and was acclaimed as one of the world's greatest singing-actors, specializing in roles that evoked villainy and terror. He sang in many experimental productions and participated in several important premieres, in operas by Einem, Copland, Moore, Floyd, Orff, Dallapiccola and Ward (The Crucible). Perhaps his greatest roles were in Faust (as Méphistophélès), Carmen (as Escamillo), Susannah, Il prigioniero, Les contes d'Hoffmann (the four Villains), Boris Godunov and, especially, Mefistofele.
He occasionally sang lighter material, as in the 1962 studio recording of the musical numbers from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (musical), in which he performed the role of the semi-comic villain, Jigger Craigin.
In the fall of 1974, Treigle made his Covent Garden debut in a new production of Faust. The following February 16th, at the age of forty-seven, the bass-baritone died suddenly at his New Orleans apartment: A chronic insomniac, it was determined that he was the victim of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. With his first wife, he had a son (who died in 1993) and a daughter, Phyllis. He had also adopted the daughter of his second wife, from whom he was separated at the time of his death.
Phyllis Treigle is a soprano who appeared with the New Orleans Opera and the New York City Opera.
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[edit] Selected Discography of Studio Recordings
- Copland: The Tender Land: abridged (Clements, Cassilly; Copland, 1965) Columbia
- Handel: Giulio Cesare (Sills, Forrester; Rudel, 1967) RCA
- Floyd: Pilgrimage: excerpts (Torkanowsky, 1971) Orion
- Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann (Sills, Marsee, Burrows; Rudel, 1972) Westminster
- Boito: Mefistofele (Caballé, Domingo; Rudel, 1973) EMI
[edit] Selected Approved "Live" Recordings
- Puccini: La bohème (Albanese, Schuh, di Stefano, Valdengo; Cellini, 1959) VAI
- Floyd: Susannah (Curtin, Cassilly; Andersson, 1962) VAI
- Floyd: The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair (Neway; Rudel, 1963) VAI
- Floyd: Markheim (Schuh; Andersson, 1966) VAI
- Handel: Giulio Cesare: excerpts (Sills; Richter, 1968) VAI
[edit] Selected Videography
- Floyd: Susannah: Revival Scene (Yestadt, Treigle, 1958) [live] Bel Canto Society
[edit] Bibliography
- Strange Child of Chaos: Norman Treigle, by Brian Morgan, iUniverse, 2006. ISBN 0-595-38898-1
[edit] Trivia
- A fragment of the Treigle voice is heard in the 2005 Warner Bros. film, Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan. The young Bruce Wayne and his parents are seen attending a performance of Mefistofele in Gotham City, and the recording used is EMI's 1973 set.
