Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill, born Moishe Miller in 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, was a renowned American baritone known for his significant contributions to opera and popular music. His career began in the 1940s when he emerged as a prominent figure at the Metropolitan Opera, where he notably performed roles in Verdi's operas, including "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto." Merrill's operatic debut came in 1944, and he quickly rose to fame, singing alongside renowned artists and eventually becoming a staple at the Met for thirty-one seasons.
In addition to his operatic endeavors, Merrill was a versatile performer who appeared in nightclub acts, including in Las Vegas, and even took on roles in musicals, such as "Fiddler on the Roof." His ability to crossover into radio and television further established him as a familiar face in American culture. Merrill's legacy includes 789 performances at the Metropolitan Opera and numerous recordings, particularly treasured in the Verdi repertoire. His contributions to the arts were recognized with appointments to prestigious councils and the receipt of the National Medal of Arts. Merrill's life reflects a journey marked by resilience and artistic excellence, leaving an indelible mark on the music world.
Subject Terms
Robert Merrill
American opera and musical-theater singer
- Born: June 4, 1917
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
- Died: October 23, 2004
- Place of death: New Rochelle, New York
Merrill had a thirty-year career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and he appeared many times on radio and on television, becoming an effective representative of the opera world in other media.
The Life
Robert Merrill was born Moishe Miller in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, in 1917. His parents, Abe and Lotza Millstein, had changed their name to Miller after emigrating from Poland to the United States. As a youth, Merrill was interested in baseball, and he played sandlot games for ten dollars each. He also worked in the garment district, pushing carts of clothing. He gradually became interested in singing, influenced partly by his mother, who was a singer, and partly by hearing records of Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo. He began formal voice training, first with a cantor, then with Samuel Margolis, who had a studio next to the opera house. Soon, he was singing on the radio on station WFOX, using the name Merrill Miller.
His broadcast career expanded to include the Major Bowes Amateur Hour and NBC’s Salute to America series. In 1944 he changed his name to Robert Merrill. In 1952 he was briefly married to soprano Roberta Peters. After they divorced, he married Marion Machno, a pianist who became his accompanist and mother of his two children, Lizanne and David. They lived in New Rochelle, New York. It was there Merrill died while watching the 2004 World Series on television.
The Music
Merrill auditioned unsuccessfully for the Metropolitan Opera in 1941. He then filled his schedule with jobs at various hotels in the Catskills, a summer resort area, where he sang popular songs as well as his audition aria “Largo al factotum” from Gioacchino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville (1816). At this time, he also performed in comedy routines with Red Skelton, the Three Stooges, and other entertainers. The theatrical agent Moe Gale helped him find radio work on the NBC Concert Orchestra program and on Serenade to America, where the conductor was Phil Spitalny. Later, he was engaged at Radio City Music Hall.
Operatic Debut. In 1944, through the efforts of Gale’s friend Michael de Pace, Merrill was hired to sing his operatic debut in the role of Amonasro in Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida (1871) in Newark, New Jersey. Tenor Giovanni Martinelli was also in the cast, and he befriended Merrill. With Martinelli’s help, more roles followed: Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (1892) in Worcester, Massachusetts; Escamillo in Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1873) in Hartford, Connecticut; and Valentin in Charles Gounod’s Faust (1859) in Trenton, New Jersey.
The Metropolitan Opera. In June, 1945, after a successful audition, Merrill was hired by Edward Johnson, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. His debut with that company in December, 1945, was in the role of Germont in Verdi’s La traviata (1853), a role he was to sing many times in his career. Other cast members that night were Richard Tucker and Licia Albanese. During this period, Merrill was also singing weekly on radio on The Voice of Firestone and Music America Loves Best. His recording of “The Whiffenpoof Song” soared to number one on the Hit Parade radio show. Conductor Arturo Toscanini selected Merrill to sing the role of Germont for his 1946 radio broadcast of La traviata with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The broadcast also featured Albanese as Violetta and Jan Peerce as Alfredo.
During his first three seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, Merrill sang in eight different operas, including Verdi’s La Traviata, Il trovatore (1853), and Aida. In 1947 he gave his first performance of Figaro in The Barber of Seville. In 1951 Merrill decided to go to Hollywood to make a film called Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), costarring Dinah Shore. The film was a disaster, and it almost cost Merrill his career at the Metropolitan Opera. Because he had skipped some performances to make the film, he was in breach of his contract. He was fired by Rudolf Bing, who had succeeded Johnson as general manager at the Metropolitan Opera. Merrill missed from February, 1951, until March, 1952, at the Metropolitan Opera, but he spent some time entertaining at Army bases in Europe for the United Service Organizations (USO) in support of the troops. After making an abject apology to Bing (which was published in The New York Times and The Herald Tribune), Merrill was rehired in the spring of 1952, when he added the role of Marcello in Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème (1896) to his repertoire. His biggest part that year was the title role in Verdi’s Rigoletto (1851). Merrill was becoming a major Verdi baritone. In succeeding seasons, he added the Verdi roles of Alvaro in La forza del destino (1862), Rodrigo in Don Carlos (1867), Renato in Un ballo in maschera (1859), and Iago in Otello (1887).
Merrill remained active at the Metropolitan Opera for thirty-one seasons, and he made guest appearances in opera houses around the world, including in Mexico City, in Havana, in Buenos Aires, in London, and in Venice. He sang with the company on its spring tours and on its visits to Tokyo in 1975 and to Paris in 1966. He retired from the Metropolitan Opera in 1976.
Las Vegas. In addition to his operatic work, Merrill performed in nightclub acts in Las Vegas, with such fellow entertainers as Louis Armstrong, Talullah Bankhead, and Noël Coward. He signed a five-year, ten-thousand-dollar-per-week contract at the Sands casino. In 1971 Merrill assumed the role of Tevye in a traveling company of the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964) by Jerry Bock, Joseph Stein, and Sheldon Harnick. In this endeavor, Merrill performed the role two hundred times over a three-year period.
Musical Legacy
Merrill leaves a musical legacy in his 789 Metropolitan Opera performances, mainly in Verdi roles. He also made many opera recordings for RCA Victor still treasured by listeners. In addition to his operatic work, he was a rare example of an artist who could cross over into mass media, such as radio and television. In so doing, he became a familiar face and an effective representative of the opera world. In 1968 he was appointed to the National Council of Arts by President Lyndon Johnson, and in 1993 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton.
Principal Works
operatic roles: Amonasro in Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, 1944; Germont in Verdi’s La traviata, 1945; Escamillo in Georges Bizet’s Carmen, 1946; Valentin in Charles Gounod’s Faust, 1946; Count Di Luna in Verdi’s Il trovatore, 1947; Rodrigo in Verdi’s Don Carlos, 1950; Marcello in Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, 1952; Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, 1952; Rigoletto in Verdi’s Rigoletto, 1952; Renato in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, 1954; Iago in Verdi’s Otello, 1963.
Principal Recordings
albums:Fiddler on the Roof, 1968; Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, 1974; The Radio Years: Robert Merrill on Radio, Unpublished Broadcasts 1940-1946, 1995.
writings of interest:Once More from the Beginning, 1965 (autobiography); Between Acts: An Irreverent Look at Opera, 1976 (memoirs).
Bibliography
Bing, Rudolf. Five Thousand Nights at the Opera. New York: Doubleday, 1972. The author was general manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera for twenty-two years, and in this book he tells many stories about the artists and productions. Of the firing of Merrill, he says that the Met “lost the services of a great baritone, but sustained a principle without which there could be no hope of first-class opera production.”
Davis, Peter G. American Opera Singers. New York: Doubleday, 1997. This resource covers singers from 1825 to 1997. The author finds Merrill’s voice powerful and beautiful, but his acting sometimes wooden. Short biographical articles on famous singers, with notes on their vocal qualities and idiosyncrasies.
Merrill, Robert, with Sandford Dody. Once More from the Beginning. New York: Macmillan, 1965. This autobiography includes photographs of the author in his major operatic roles.
Steane, J. B. The Grand Tradition. 2d ed. Portland, Oreg.: Amadeus Press, 1993. A serious work that surveys seventy years of opera recordings and that offers critiques of hundreds of singers, including Merrill.