Robert Thomas US

Thomas' father was a pastor, and the boy grew up in various US states, depending on his father's assignments: California, Missouri, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon. He studied theology when discovering that his love for singing was stronger, so he took voice lessons with Frank Tavaglione in Riverside, where he lived at the time, then he moved to Los Angeles, worked as a machinist, and sang a few roles with the newly founded Los Angeles Opera (debut as Foresto in 1957). In 1958, he was with the San Francisco Opera, then he moved to Zürich for three seasons, then to Germany.

In 1963/64, he sang in Freiburg, from 1964 to 1969 at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf and Duisburg). Regular guest apperances in Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Stuttgart, Köln, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Karlsruhe and Mannheim, further in Graz, Basel, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nancy, Nice, Brussels, Amsterdam, Bologna, Trieste, Venice, Naples, Torino, Parma, Palermo, Florence... His repertory at that time ranged from Ferrando to Florestan, from Duca to Alvaro, from Hoffmann to Énée, from Rodolfo to Bacchus

From 1969 to 1974, he was primarily associated with the Lyric Opera Chicago, as a comprimario (Steuermann, Cassio, Arturo in Lucia). After his career, he moved to Germany again, where he lived in Dortmund until moving back to the US in 2002.

Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2