James O'Neal

After studies at California and Cameron State Universities, O'Neal made his debut in 1979 in Santa Fe as one of the Jews in Salome. Almost immediately after that, he went to Europe, where he had his first contract, for the 1979/80 season, in Sankt Gallen. From 1980 to 1982, he sang in Bern, then he joined the Municipal Theater in Bielefeld, which was of particular interest at that period. He sang unusual repertory there: Erik in Fennimore and Gerda by Frederick Delius, Amandus in Der singende Teufel by Franz Schreker, Lord Darnley in Mary, queen of Scots by Thea Musgrave, Azor in Zemire et Azor by Grétry, the title role in Roberto Devereux; he further sang Elvino, Belmonte, Nemorino, Almaviva, Rodolfo, Riccardo, but also Pollione, Tannhäuser, Paul and, with particular success, Pollione.

He would stay in Bielefeld for many years and return as a guest up to his death, but he made many appearances elsewhere, too: Monte Carlo (1982, Bacchus), Berlin Staatsoper (regularly from 1985, Arrigo, Turiddu, Puccini's des Grieux or Lohengrin), Rome (1991, Leukippos in Daphne), Spoleto Festival (1992, Stolzing), Trieste, Oldenburg, Lucerne (Horace in Venus by Othmar Schoeck), Chemnitz (1992, Parsifal), Helsinki (1994, Lohengrin), Oslo (1994 to 1996, Loge, Siegmund and both Siegfrieds), Los Angeles (1993, Kaiser in Frau ohne Schatten), Washington (1995, Pedro in Tiefland), Hamburg (1996, the title role in the posthumous world premiere of Zemlinsky's König Kandaules), Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2

I wish to thank James Hanrahan for the recordings.