Robert Merrill

2025-09-12T10:08:55Z

2601:188:CB82:D170:D50F:415B:E86A:4AA8: /* Death */ Date.

{{Short description|Opera singer and actor (1917–2004)}}
{{for|the songwriter/composer|Bob Merrill}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox musical artist
|name=Robert Merrill
|image = Robert Merrill.jpg
|image_size=190px
|caption=Merrill in the 1940s
|background=solo_singer
|birth_name=Moishe Miller
|birth_date={{birth date|1917|6|4}}
|birth_place=[[Brooklyn]], New York, US
|death_date={{death date and age|2004|10|23|1917|6|4}}
|death_place=[[New Rochelle, New York]], US
|alias={{unbulleted list|Robert Merrill|Morris Miller}}
|genre={{flatlist|*[[Opera]]
*[[Musical theatre]]}}
|occupation={{flatlist|*Singer
*Actor}}
|instruments=Voice ([[baritone]])
|past_member_of=[[Metropolitan Opera]]
}}
'''Robert Merrill''' (June 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American [[opera]]tic [[baritone]] and actor, who was also active in the [[musical theatre]] circuit. He received the [[National Medal of Arts]] in 1993.

==Early life==
Merrill was born '''Moishe Miller''', later known as '''Morris Miller''', in the [[Williamsburg, Brooklyn|Williamsburg]] section of [[Brooklyn, New York]]. He was the son of tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife, Lillian (née Balaban), Jewish immigrants from [[Pultusk]], Poland, near Warsaw. His paternal grandparents were Berl Milstein and Chana (née Mlawski), both from Pultusk, Poland.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}}

His mother claimed to have had an operatic and concert career in Poland (a fact denied by her son in his biographies) and encouraged her son to have early voice training: he had a stutter, which wasn't apparent when singing. Merrill was inspired to pursue professional singing lessons when he saw the baritone [[Richard Bonelli]] singing Count Di Luna in a performance of ''[[Il Trovatore]]'' at the [[Metropolitan Opera]], and paid for them with money earned as a semi-professional [[pitcher]].<ref name="usatoday.com">{{cite news| url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-10-26-robert-merrill-obit_x.htm| title=Opera star Robert Merrill dies at 85| date=October 26, 2004| work=[[USA Today]]| access-date=2017-08-08}}</ref>

==Radio and recordings==
In his early radio appearances as a [[crooner]] he was sometimes billed as '''Merrill Miller'''. While singing at [[bar mitzvah]]s and weddings and [[Borscht Belt]] resorts, he met an agent, Moe Gale, who found him work at [[Radio City Music Hall]] and with the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]], conducted by [[Arturo Toscanini]]. With Toscanini conducting, he eventually sang in two of the maestro's NBC Symphony broadcasts of famous operas, ''[[La traviata]]'' (with [[Licia Albanese]], in 1946), and ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'' (with [[Herva Nelli]], in 1954). Both of those operas were recorded and later released on both LP and CD by [[RCA Victor]]. His ranking as an important NBC performer is evidenced by his inclusion in [[NBC]]'s 1947 promotional book, ''NBC Parade of Stars: As Heard Over Your Favorite NBC Station'', displaying [[Sam Berman]]'s caricatures of leading NBC personalities.

Merrill's 1944 operatic debut was in [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s ''[[Aida]]'' at [[Newark, New Jersey]], with the famous tenor [[Giovanni Martinelli]], then in the later stages of his long operatic career. Merrill, who had continued his vocal studies under [[Samuel Margolis]] made his debut at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] as winner of the [[Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air]] in 1945, as Germont in ''[[La traviata]]''. Also in 1945, Merrill recorded a 78 rpm album set with [[Jeanette MacDonald]], featuring selections from the operetta ''[[Up in Central Park]]''; MacDonald and Merrill sang two duets together on this album.

{{external media|width=180px|audio1=[https://archive.org/details/BIZETCarmen-Stevens/02.Soldiers-surLaPlaceChacunPasse.mp3 Robert Merrill as Escamillo] in [[Georges Bizet]]'s opera ''[[Carmen]]'' with [[Fritz Reiner]] conducting the [[RCA Victor Orchestra]] and [[Jan Peerce]], [[Risë Stevens]] and [[Licia Albanese]] in 1951}}
In 1951, Merrill recorded a series of operatic duets with the Swedish tenor [[Jussi Björling]] for RCA Victor, including a world-renowned recording of "[[Au fond du temple saint]]" from the opera ''[[Les pêcheurs de perles]]'' by [[Georges Bizet]]. That same year he participated in another celebrated RCA Victor recording, Bizet's ''[[Carmen]]'' with [[Risë Stevens]] and [[Jan Peerce]], conducted by [[Fritz Reiner]].

In 1952 Merrill, Björling, and [[Victoria de los Ángeles]] made a widely admired RCA Victor recording of Puccini's ''[[La bohème]]'', conducted by Sir [[Thomas Beecham]]. In 1953, Merrill, Björling, de los Angeles and [[Zinka Milanov]] recorded the complete ''[[Pagliacci]]'' and ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]''.

==Metropolitan Opera==
His role in the musical comedy film ''[[Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick]]'' (1952) led to a conflict with Sir [[Rudolf Bing]] and a brief departure from the Met in 1951. Merrill sang many different baritone roles, and after the on-stage death of the celebrated [[Leonard Warren]] in 1960, became the Met's principal baritone, sharing that position in a few years with Cornell MacNeil. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he appeared under the direction of [[Alfredo Antonini]] in performances of arias from the Italian operatic repertoire for the open air ''Italian Night'' concert series at [[Lewisohn Stadium]] in New York City.<ref>{{cite news| title=Stadium Concerts Announces Artists| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/05/14/archives/stadium-concerts-announces-artists.html| work=[[The New York Times]]| date=May 14, 1959| page=29| url-access=subscription| access-date=2017-08-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=Stadium to Offer Offenbach Opera| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/05/19/archives/stadium-to-offer-offenbach-opera-tales-of-hoffmann-listed-june-29.html| work=The New York Times| date=May 19, 1959| page=28| url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=Music: Verdi Program at Stadium; Four Singers Heard in Opera Excerpts Mary Curtis-Verna Is Seen in Debut There| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/07/10/archives/music-verdi-program-at-stadium-four-singers-heard-in-opera-excerpts.html| last=Schoenberg| first=Harold C.|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg|newspaper=The New York Times| date=July 10, 1959| page=28| url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=Music Notes| work=The New York Times| date=July 21, 1960| page= 17| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B04E7DF103EEF3ABC4951DFB166838B679EDE&legacy=true| url-access=subscription}}</ref>

He was described by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' as "one of the Met's best baritones". Yet reviews were not consistently good: ''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'' magazine reported on a Metropolitan Opera performance of ''Barber of Seville'' in which Merrill delivered "by all odds the most insensitive impersonation of the season". He was accused by the reviewer of "loud, coarse sounds" and "no grace, no charm, as he butchered the text and galumphed around the stage".<ref>''[[Opera (British magazine)|Opera]]'', June 1954, pp. 351–352.</ref>

==Later career==

Merrill appeared on "Voice of Firestone" with Joanne Hill.

Merrill also continued to perform on radio and television, in nightclubs and recitals. In 1973, Merrill teamed up with [[Richard Tucker]] to present a concert at Carnegie Hall—a first for the two "vocal supermen" (as one critic dubbed them), and a first "for the demanding New York public and critics," Merrill recalled. The event marked a precedent that eventually led to the "Three Tenors" concerts many years later. Merrill retired from the Met in 1976. In 1977, he appeared on the TV special "Sinatra & Friends," soloing "If I Were A Rich Man" and performing "The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York" with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. For many years, he led services, often in Borscht Belt hotels, on [[Rosh Hashana]] and [[Yom Kippur]].

In honor of Merrill's vast influence on American vocal music, on February 16, 1981, he was awarded the prestigious [[University of Pennsylvania Glee Club]] Award of Merit.<ref name="glee">{{cite web |author= |title=The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit |date= |website=Penn Glee Club |access-date=February 19, 2023 |quote= |url= https://www.penngleeclub.com/awards }}</ref>
<blockquote>
First awarded in 1964, the Award of Merit honors an individual that has "made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression."<ref name="glee"/>
</blockquote>

In 1996, at a reception at [[Lincoln Center]], Merrill was presented with The Lawrence Tibbett Award from the AGMA Relief Fund, honoring his fifty years of professional achievement and dedication to colleagues. The AGMA Relief Fund, award sponsor, provides financial assistance and support services to classical performing artists in need.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

==Sporting events==
Relatively late in his singing career, Merrill also became known for singing "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]" at [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]] and [[Giants Stadium]]. He first sang the [[national anthem]] to open the 1967 [[baseball]] season, and it became a tradition for the [[New York Yankees|Yankees]] to bring him back each year on [[Opening Day]] and special occasions. He sang at various Old Timer's Days (wearing his own pinstriped Yankee uniform with the number "1{{frac|1|2}}" on the back) and the emotional [[pre-game ceremony]] in memory of [[Thurman Munson]] at Yankee Stadium on August 3, 1979, the day after the catcher died in a plane crash. Merrill also sang at one World Series game in each year the Yankees played the Fall Classic at the stadium, starting in [[1976 World Series|1976]]. A recorded Merrill version is still sometimes used at [[Yankee Stadium]], mainly at Old Timer's Day. In 2021, the Yankees replaced the live organ version of "[[God Bless America]]" that had played for almost two years with Merrill's cover.

Merrill preferred a traditional approach to the song, devoid of additional [[ornament (music)|ornamentation]], as he explained to ''[[Newsday]]'' in 2000, "When you sing the anthem, there's a legitimacy to it. I'm extremely bothered by these different interpretations of it." Merrill appeared opposite [[Adam Sandler]] in a scene singing the national anthem, in the 2003 film ''[[Anger Management (film)|Anger Management]]''. Merrill joked that an entire generation of people know him as "The 'Say-Can-You-See' guy!" (''Agmazine'', April 1996).

==Personal life==
While there has been dispute regarding his birth year (some claim he was born in 1919),<ref name="usatoday.com"/> the [[Social Security Death Index]],<ref>Record of Robert Merrill, Social Security No. 081-07-2677, issued in the state of New York, in: [http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ Ancestry.com. ''Social Security Death Index''] database on-line. Provo, Utah, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2008.</ref> his family, and his gravestone state that he was born in 1917.

Merrill married [[soprano]] [[Roberta Peters]] in 1952, however they divorced shortly afterwards. He had two children with his second wife, Marion Machno, a [[piano|pianist]]. Merrill liked to play golf and was a member of the [[Westchester Country Club]] in Rye, New York, for many years.

He wrote two books of memoirs, ''Once More from the Beginning'' (1965) and ''Between Acts'' (1976), and he co-authored a novel, ''The Divas'' (1978).

Merrill toured all over the world with his arranger and conductor, Angelo DiPippo, who wrote most of his act and performed at concert halls throughout the world.

==Death==
Merrill died on October 23, 2004, at his home in [[New Rochelle, New York]], at age 87. He is interred at the [[Sharon Gardens]] Cemetery in [[Valhalla, New York]], which is the Jewish division of [[Kensico Cemetery]]. His headstone features an opera curtain that has been drawn open.

His epitaph states: "Like a bursting celestial star, he showered his family and the world with love, joy, and beauty. Encore please."

==Performances with the Metropolitan Opera==

Robert Merrill sang [[List of performers at the Metropolitan Opera|789 performances with the Metropolitan Opera]] in the following 21 roles:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.metopera.org/MetOperaSearch/search.jsp?q=%22Robert%20Merrill%22|title=Robert Merrill performances|website=[[Metropolitan Opera]] Archives|access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Composer!!Opera!!Role!!First performance!!Last performance!!Total performances
|-
|[[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]||[[La traviata]]||Germont||align="center" | 1945-12-15||align="center" | 1976-03-15||align="center" | 132
|-
|[[Gaetano Donizetti|Donizetti]]||[[Lucia di Lammermoor]]||Enrico||align="center" | 1945-12-29||align="center" | 1965-01-23||align="center" | 16
|-
|[[Georges Bizet|Bizet]]||[[Carmen]]||Escamillo||align="center" | 1946-01-07||align="center" | 1972-01-04||align="center" | 81
|-
|[[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]||[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]||Shchelkalov||align="center" | 1946-11-21||align="center" | 1947-04-21||align="center" | 5
|-
|[[Charles Gounod|Gounod]]||[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]||Valentin||align="center" | 1946-12-23||align="center" | 1972-05-04||align="center" | 48
|-
|Verdi||[[Aida]]||Amonasro||align="center" | 1947-01-11||align="center" | 1973-06-01||align="center" | 72
|-
|[[Gioachino Rossini|Rossini]]||[[Il Barbiere di Siviglia]]||Figaro||align="center" | 1947-11-15||align="center" | 1966-06-04||align="center" | 46
|-
|Verdi||[[Il trovatore]]||Count di Luna||align="center" | 1947-12-11||align="center" | 1973-05-30||align="center" | 73
|-
|[[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]||[[Samson et Dalila]]||High Priest||align="center" | 1949-11-26||align="center" | 1950-04-30||align="center" | 10
|-
|Verdi||[[Don Carlo]]||Rodrigo||align="center" | 1950-11-06||align="center" | 1972-06-21||align="center" | 51
|-
|[[Ruggero Leoncavallo|Leoncavallo]]||[[Pagliacci]]||Silvio||align="center" | 1951-02-09||align="center" | 1951-02-09||align="center" | 1
|-
|Leoncavallo||[[Pagliacci]]||Tonio||align="center" | 1952-03-14||align="center" | 1964-04-02||align="center" | 22
|-
|Verdi||[[Rigoletto]]||Rigoletto||align="center" | 1952-11-15||align="center" | 1972-02-05||align="center" | 56
|-
|[[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]||[[La bohème]]||Marcello||align="center" | 1952-12-27||align="center" | 1954-02-01||align="center" | 10
|-
|Verdi||[[Un ballo in maschera]]||Renato||align="center" | 1955-02-26||align="center" | 1976-05-29||align="center" | 56
|-
|Donizetti||[[Don Pasquale]]||Malatesta||align="center" | 1956-04-09||align="center" | 1956-12-10||align="center" | 8
|-
|[[Amilcare Ponchielli|Ponchielli]]||[[La Gioconda (opera)|La Gioconda]]||Barnaba||align="center" | 1958-12-11||align="center" | 1962-04-16||align="center" | 13
|-
|Verdi||[[La forza del destino]]||Don Carlo||align="center" | 1961-12-12||align="center" | 1972-06-09||align="center" | 33
|-
|[[Umberto Giordano|Giordano]]||[[Andrea Chénier]]||Carlo Gérard||align="center" | 1962-10-15||align="center" | 1966-03-22||align="center" | 7
|-
|Verdi||[[Otello]]||Iago||align="center" | 1963-03-10||align="center" | 1965-05-07||align="center" | 18
|-
|Puccini||[[Tosca]]||Scarpia||align="center" | 1964-10-23||align="center" | 1974-12-09||align="center" | 11
|-
|-class="sortbottom"
|}

==Studio recordings==
{{ external media|float=right|width=180px|audio1=You may hear Robert Merrill performing Verdi's "[[La Traviata]]" with [[Richard Tucker]], [[Anna Moffo]] and the Rome Opera Orchestra conducted by [[Fernando Previtali]] in 1961 <br> [https://archive.org/details/lp_la-traviata_verdi-anna-moffo-richard-tucker-robert-mer/disc1/01.01.+La+traviata%3A+Atto+I.+(Part1).mp3 '''Here on Archive.org''']}}

Robert Merrill made at least 25 studio recordings of complete operas, including two Toscanini radio broadcasts:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/ALSIMERR.HTM|title=ALSIMERR.HTM|access-date=25 February 2017}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!Composer!!Opera!!Role!!Date
|-
|[[Bizet]]||[[Carmen]]||Escamillo||1951, 1963
|-
|[[Donizetti]]||[[Lucia di Lammermoor]]||Enrico||1961
|-
|[[Leoncavallo]]||[[Pagliacci]]||Silvio||1953
|-
|Leoncavallo||Pagliacci||Tonio||1967
|-
|[[Pietro Mascagni|Mascagni]]||[[Cavalleria rusticana]]||Alfio||1953
|-
|[[Ponchielli]]||[[La Gioconda (opera)|La Gioconda]]||Barnaba||1967
|-
|[[Puccini]]||[[La bohème]]||Marcello||1956, 1961
|-
|Puccini||[[Manon Lescaut (Puccini)|Manon Lescaut]]||Lescaut||1954
|-
|Puccini||[[Il tabarro]]||Michele||1962
|-
|[[Rossini]]||[[Il barbiere di Siviglia]]||Figaro||1958
|-
|[[Oscar Straus (composer)|Straus]]||[[Der tapfere Soldat]]||Bumerli||1952
|-
|[[Verdi]]||[[Aida]]||Amonasro||1961
|-
|Verdi||[[Un ballo in maschera]]||Renato||1946, 1966
|-
|Verdi||[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]||Ford||1963
|-
|Verdi||[[La forza del destino]]||Don Carlo||1964
|-
|Verdi||[[Rigoletto]]||Rigoletto||1956, 1963
|-
|Verdi||[[La traviata]]||Germont||1946, 1960, 1962
|-
|Verdi||[[Il trovatore]]||Conte di Luna||1964
|-
|-class="sortbottom"
|}

==See also==
* [[A Salute to American Music|A Salute to American Music (Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala XVI, 1991)]]

==Listen to==
*[http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2004/10/26 WNYC ''Soundcheck'': Robert Merrill Remembered (October 26, 2004)]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*{{Find a Grave|9711398}}
*[http://www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk/CLSIMERR.HTM Discography of opera recordings] (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/26/arts/music/26merrill.html ''The New York Times''], Obituary, October 26, 2004
*[http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm10-8/Moishe-Milstein.htm "Great Singers Remembered: Robert Merrill"] by Philip Ehrensaft. ''La Scena Musicale'', May 14, 2005
*{{IMDb name|0581323}}

{{New York Yankees}}
{{National Medal of Arts recipients 1990s}}
{{Portal bar|Baseball|Biography|Theatre|Opera}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Robert}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century American male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century American male opera singers]]
[[Category:20th-century American memoirists]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American operatic baritones]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Burials at Kensico Cemetery]]
[[Category:Classical musicians from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]]
[[Category:Jewish American male actors]]
[[Category:Jewish American musicians]]
[[Category:Jewish classical musicians]]
[[Category:Jewish opera singers]]
[[Category:Singers from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:Musicians from New Rochelle, New York]]
[[Category:New York Yankees]]
[[Category:Musicians from Brooklyn]]
[[Category:People from Williamsburg, Brooklyn]]
[[Category:RCA Victor artists]]
[[Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients]]
[[Category:Winners of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air]]

Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

Robert Merrill