Chris Merritt

Click for recollections on Chris Merritt between La donna del lago in Paris (1986) and Guillaume Tell in London (1990), his poor showing in Sigurd (1994) and his fiasco in San Francisco in November 1997.

Merritt studied piano, singing, dance and drama at Oklahoma City University where he made his first stage appearance in Les contes d'Hoffmann in a university production. At age 21, he was accepted into the summer season Apprentice Program for Singers at the Santa Fe Opera. His high-lyrical tenor voice makes him well-suited to the bel canto roles, such as those by Rossini.

He made his official debut in 1975, as Cajus in Falstaff. Auditions at the Metropolitan Opera won him a part in I puritani in 1981 at the City Opera, and that was the performance which brought him international attention and marked the beginning of a very successful career.

His Met debut took place on 30 November 1990, when he sang the role of Idreno in Rossini's Semiramide, which was not very successful, however. He much improved the next year when he sang there the role of Arturo in I puritani along with Edita Gruberová. Successively he performed at the Met also in principal roles in Rusalka (in 1997 where he was booed), and Kaťa Kabanová (in 2005).

In other places, he made his debut at Covent Garden in La donna del lago on 27 June 1985, and sang there also the role of Arnold in Guillaume Tell (in 1990) where he was heavily booed and fights broke out in the auditorium during his curtain call.

At the San Francisco Opera, he sang in Maometto II (debut in 1988), and also in the role of Arnold in Guillaume Tell in 1992 and 1997/98 season. On 6 August 1993, he sang the title role in Sigurd completely overparted at the sole performance of that rarely performed opera at the Festival Montpellier.

Most recently in 2006, Merritt has appeared in the American premiere production of Thomas Adès' The tempest at the Santa Fe Opera.
Reference

Merritt is the perfect example of a belcanto tenor killing his voice singing Arnold. When his voice was finished, he turned to singing modern operas. But he also dared to sing Éléazar in Paris and was taken apart by the audience.

Comments by Robert Schlesinger on Mr. Marcocci's Merritt assessment:
On your interesting Merritt recollections page, Mr. Marcocci mentions a concert in Modena where Merritt was excellent, and a Zelmira at the Fenice after that concert. He says he believes the concert was in 1983/84, but is not sure. Well, the Zelmira was actually on July 19th, 1988, and I have a complete Merritt concert from Modena October 5th, 1987, where he does great singing indeed (never released on records, never broadcast!) ... could very well be the concert Mr. Marcocci was referring to.

The next nine recordings were part of one concert and sung in that order. He already sings arias too heavy for him (Tell, but above all Troyens). Nevertheless, some great singing, too – the Anna Bolena, the Tancredi, the Pour mon âme, the A te o cara.

I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recording (Guillaume Tell duo).

I would like to thank Helmut Krautschneider for the recordings (Zelmira, Puritani duo, Bianca e Faliero).