Dominic Cossa
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Dominic Cossa (born May 13, 1935) is an American operatic lyric baritone particularly associated with the Italian and French repertories.
Born in Jessup, Pennsylvania, he studied with Anthony Marlowe in Detroit, Michigan and Robert Weede in Concord, California. He made his debut at the New York City Opera as Sharpless in 1961. He went to Europe in 1964 , and appeared at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan.
He made his debut at the San Francisco Opera in 1967, as Zurga in Les pecheurs de perles. His Metropolitan Opera debut took place on January 30, 1970, as Silvio in Pagliacci, other roles there were Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Marcello in La boheme, Mercutio in Faust, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Valentin in Faust.
Cossa's left a few notable recordings of his best roles such as Belcore in L'elisir d'amore opposite Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti, Achillas in Handel's s Giulio Cesare, opposite Norman Treigle and Beverly Sills, Nevers in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, again opposite Sutherland, Martina Arroyo and Huguette Tourangeau, and the baritone solo part in Roger Sessions's When Lilacs Last on the Dooryard Bloom'd.
Cossa taught at the Manhattan School of Music and in 1988 he accepted a position as Professor of Music at the University of Maryland, where he became chair of the Voice/Opera department.
[edit] Sources
- The Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia, edited by David Hamilton, (Simon and Schuster, 1987) ISBN 0-671-61732-X
