Hale then shifted to heavier roles, performing the title role of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer first in 1978 at the Opernhaus Wuppertal, Germany. After his success there, he became in demand to perform the role at leading opera houses in Europe and the United States. He went further and tackled the role of Wotan in Wagner's Ring cycle, which he first performed in Wiesbaden in 1984, then at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1986. It became his signature role, performed and recorded worldwide, and he regarded the Berlin company as his artistic home for almost two decades.
Hale began his career as a recitalist appearing in concert halls across the United States. He made his operatic debut in 1965 in the title role of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Denver Opera.[2] He appeared at the New York City Opera from 1967,[2] first as Colline in Puccini's La bohème. He remained with the company as a leading baritone for 10 years, where he was often seen in productions starring Beverly Sills,[2] performing for example as Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor which was broadcast nationwide. Other roles in the revival of the then-neglected belcanto repertoire[6] were Enrico in Donizetti's Anna Bolena, and Bellini's Giorgio in I puritani, and Ottoveso in Norma. He also appeared there as Mozart's Don Giovanni, as both Figaro and the Count in Le nozzze di figaro, also as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, and the Father in Chabrier's Louise.[2]
Mr. Hale, a former New York City Opera stalwart, made a fine impression. He lacks the beauty of tone and security of production of Mr. Morris, who preceded him in this production. But he sang and acted with more dramatic fire, and even looked the part of this spectral wanderer better than the sleeker Mr. Morris. The voice itself is a solid one, not particularly large or biting or authoritative. But Mr. Hale knows how to declaim a Wagnerian phrase, and his big moments - "Die Frist ist um", "Wie aus der Ferne" and his final self-revelation - made a far greater impact than they had in Mr. Morris's bland account.[8]
Hale performed the role of Wotan in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (which is the Wanderer in its part Siegfried), first at Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, directed by Nicolas Joel, who had been an assistant to Patrice Chéreau for the Jahrhundertring, the centenary production of the Ring at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. Hale appreciated the director's work as "strong, clear, concise, related directly to the text".[7] He then performed the role at Deutsche Oper Berlin, in a 1986 production directed by Götz Friedrich.[9] He came to regard the company as his artistic home, where he learned "not only to sing his great operatic roles, but also to shape them in terms of words and acting". He performed Wotan in 30 performances at the house until 2005, and was on stage more than 170 times.[9] The Ring production toured to Japan, as the first time the cycle was performed there completely.[2] It also toured to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1989.[2][7] A reviewer noted then:
Here was an artist whose voice, good face, noble bearing and telling gestures expressed the promptings of a deep imagination, an artist who commanded not just the notes of his part but the spirit, from tragic grandeur to ironic detachment, from flooding tenderness to grim rage, all breaking forth with the immediacy of real life. It was almost too much to hope for. Even his silences were eloquent. Before he made a sound, he was making music.[7]
Other roles in Berlin included Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio, Amonasro in Verdi's Aida, Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, the Holländer, the four villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust, as a "whimsical antithesis" to Wotan. giving him a chance to show his "comic talent with electric guitar and devil costume".[9]
Hale was half of the "Hale & Wilder" concert duo, performing folk and gospel music with tenor Dean Wilder in over 4000 concerts.[12]
He was married to the soprano Inga Nielsen from 1978.[13] They recorded love songs together, and operas such as Salome and Tosca, of which Nielsen said "I have many ways of killing my husband".[14] They were divorced in 2005.[15]
In the summer of 2009 Hale started performing in recitals and concerts (especially in churches) with his second wife, soprano Julie Davies,[16] under the name "Hale & Davies: Celebration of Song."[3]
In the U.S., Hale was a national patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity.[17]
Robert Hale died in California on August 23, 2023, one day after his 85th birthday.[9][3]
Recordings
Hale is featured as Wotan on the Decca recordings of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre with Christoph von Dohnányi conducting the Cleveland Orchestra,[18] as well as Der fliegende Holländer with Dohnányi conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, all three issued on compact discs.[19] He recorded Wotan also on EMI's video recording of the complete Ring cycle from the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting.[6][7][20]
^White, Mary Jo; Rousselle, Evelyn, eds. (1955). The 1955 Arrow. Bethany, Oklahoma: Bethany-Peniel College. p. 61. Archived from the original on December 15, 2019. Retrieved September 4, 2023 – via Issuu.
.jpg)
