William Chapman (baritone)
Encyclopedia
William Chapman is an American
opera
tic baritone
and stage actor
. He appeared in several Broadway
productions and was notably a leading performer at the New York City Opera
from 1957 through 1979.
, Chapman graduated from the University of Southern California
and first worked as an actor in minor film parts with Paramount Pictures
before pursuing vocal training with William De Mille, Edward Lippi, and Leon Cepparo in his native city. He moved to New York City in 1954 and began studying with Raymond Smolov. He starred Off-Broadway
in Carmen Lombardo
and John Jacob Loeb's 1955 musical Arabian Nights at the Jones Beach Marine Theatre opposite Lauritz Melchior
and Helena Scott. In December 1956 he made his Broadway debut in the original production of Leonard Bernstein
's Candide
as Ferone and the Lawyer.
Chapman made his first opera appearance as Barone Douphol in the NBC Opera Theatre
's April 1957 television broadcast of Giuseppe Verdi
's La traviata
with Elaine Malbin
as Violetta, Igor Gorin
as Germont, and John Alexander
as Alfredo. He made his first appearance on the live opera stage in July 1957 at the Cleveland Musicarnival
as Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini
's Tosca
with Beverly Sills
as the title heroine and John Gutman directing. He joined the roster of principal artists at the New York City Opera later that year, making his first appearance with the company in the title role of Verdi's Macbeth
on 24 October 1957 with Irene Jordan as Lady Macbeth, Norman Treigle
as Banquo, Giuseppe Gismondo as Macduff, Ernest McChesney
as Malcolm, and Helen Baisley as the Lady-in-waiting. The following month he appeared at the NYCO as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
with Mary Hensley as Cio-Cio-San. After the production closed he played Jigger in Rodgers and Hammerstein
's Carousel
at the West Palm Beach Musicarnival with Stephen Douglass
as Billy in January–February 1958.
On April 6, 1958 Chapman portrayed Tracy Gates opposite Patricia Neway
as Laura Gates in the first professional production of Mark Bucci
's Tale for a Deaf Ear
at the NYCO under the baton of Arnold Gamson
. He next portrayed Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd
's Susannah
with Phyllis Curtin
in the title role and Robert Moulson
as Sam Polk in May 1958. The following June he sang Macbeth opposite Shakeh Vartenissian as Lady Macbeth for the opening of the very first Festival dei Due Mondi
under the baton of Thomas Schippers
and the Trieste Philharmonic Orchestra.
In August 1958 Chapman portrayed the Prisoner in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti
's Maria Golovin
at the Brussels World's Fair. He continued with the production when it premiered on Broadway in November 1958 at the Martin Beck Theatre under the umbrella of the NBC Opera Theatre. The following year he sang the role again with the NYCO. His other roles at the NYCO during the late 1950s included Escamillo in Georges Bizet
's Carmen
with Regina Resnik
and Claramae Turner
in the title role, Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten
's The Rape of Lucretia with Frances Bible
in the title role, Frank Maurrant in Kurt Weill
's Street Scene
, and Captain Corcoran in Gilbert and Sullivan
's H.M.S. Pinafore
.
's Greenwillow
which opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in March after playing at Philadelphia's Shubert Theatre. In October 1960 he returned to the NYCO to sing Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance
with Arnold Voketaitis
as the Pirate King and Ruth Kobart
as Ruth and Marcello in La bohème
with Karol Loraine as Musetta, Dolores Mari as Mimì, and David Poleri as Rodolfo. In 1961 he took over the role of the Pirate King from Voketaitis and also appeared at the City Opera that year as Michele in Puccini's Il tabarro
with Arlene Saunders
as Giorgetta and Count Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's The Marriage of Figaro
with Doris Jung as the Countess among other roles.
In 1962 Chapman sang Escamillo for Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus television program discussing the opera Carmen. He sang the role again later that year at both the Spoleto Festival and the NYCO. At Spoleto he also appeared in the world premiere of Tennessee Williams
's play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
. In March 1962 he portrayed Horace Tabor in Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe
opposite Beverly Sills in the title role and the Secret Police Agent in Menotti's The Consul
.
In the 1964-1965 season Chapman added four new roles to his NYCO repertoire: Rangoni in Modest Mussorgsky
's Boris Godunov
with Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
in the title role; Jochanaan in Richard Strauss
's Salome
with Norman Kelley
as Herod, Patricia Neway
as Herodias, and Curtin in the title role; Boris in Dmitri Shostakovich
's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
with Richard Krause as Zinoviy, Eileen Schauler as Katerina, and Richard Cassilly
as Sergei; and Colonel Calverley in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience
with Emile Renan
as Reginald and Claramae Turner as Lady Jane. He continued to perform annually at the NYCO throughout the rest of the 1960s, but did not add any more new roles to his repertoire with the company until 1969 when he portrayed Khan Konchak in Alexander Borodin
's Prince Igor
.
In 1966 Chapman portrayed the King opposite Janet Blair as Anna in Rodgers and Hammerstein
's The King and I
in the National Tour of the production. In 1971 he sang the title role in Arrigo Boito
's Mefistofele
for the first time at the NYCO. Other NYCO roles for him during the 1970s included the four villains in Jacques Offenbach
's The Tales of Hoffmann, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West
, and Étienne in Victor Herbert
's Naughty Marietta
. His last appearance at the NYCO was in October 1979 as Frank Maurrant in Kurt Weill's Street Scene, a production which was broadcast live on PBS's Great Performances
.
During the 1970s Chapman made several guest appearances at the Hawaii Opera Theatre
, portraying such roles as Amonasro in Aida
, Mefistofele, Olin Blitch, and the title role in The Flying Dutchman
. He also made guest appearances at the Florentine Opera
in Milwaukee and the Canadian Opera Company
. In 1976 he replaced John Collum
as Charlie Anderson in the original Broadway run of Gary Geld's Shenandoah
.
Since the early 1980s, Chapman has lived in Los Angeles with his wife Irene where he dedicates most of his time to teaching singing. He also taught on the voice faculty of the University of San Diego
. He still occasionally performs in Los Angeles theatre.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
and stage actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He appeared in several Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions and was notably a leading performer at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
from 1957 through 1979.
Early career
Born in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Chapman graduated from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and first worked as an actor in minor film parts with Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
before pursuing vocal training with William De Mille, Edward Lippi, and Leon Cepparo in his native city. He moved to New York City in 1954 and began studying with Raymond Smolov. He starred Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
in Carmen Lombardo
Carmen Lombardo
Carmen Lombardo was the younger brother of bandleader Guy Lombardo. He was a vocalist and composer whose compositions included the 1928 classic "Sweethearts on Parade", which was number one for three weeks in 1929 on the U.S...
and John Jacob Loeb's 1955 musical Arabian Nights at the Jones Beach Marine Theatre opposite Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
and Helena Scott. In December 1956 he made his Broadway debut in the original production of Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Candide
Candide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
as Ferone and the Lawyer.
Chapman made his first opera appearance as Barone Douphol in the NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...
's April 1957 television broadcast of Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
with Elaine Malbin
Elaine Malbin
Elaine Malbin is an American soprano who had a prolific international career singing in operas, musicals, and concerts from 1949 through 1967. She appeared in a number of Broadway productions in the 1940s and 1950s...
as Violetta, Igor Gorin
Igor Gorin
Igor Gorin was an Austrian baritone and music teacher.-Early life:Gorin was born Ignatz Greenberg on October 26, 1904, in the small village of Grodek in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Sholom Greenberg, was a rabbi and a Talmudist who taught religion in Grodek and in the neighboring...
as Germont, and John Alexander
John Alexander (tenor)
John Alexander was an American operatic tenor who had a substantial career during the 1950s through the 1980s. He had a long standing relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing with that company every year between 1961 and 1987 for a total of 379 performances...
as Alfredo. He made his first appearance on the live opera stage in July 1957 at the Cleveland Musicarnival
Musicarnival
Musicarnival was a music "tent" theater located on Warrensville Center Rd. in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, among the first of its kind. The theater was expanded in 1958 from its initial seating capacity, growing from 1,500 to 2,563...
as Scarpia in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
with Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...
as the title heroine and John Gutman directing. He joined the roster of principal artists at the New York City Opera later that year, making his first appearance with the company in the title role of Verdi's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)
Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
on 24 October 1957 with Irene Jordan as Lady Macbeth, Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle
Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror....
as Banquo, Giuseppe Gismondo as Macduff, Ernest McChesney
Ernest McChesney
Ernest McChesney was an American tenor who had an active singing career in operas, musicals, and concerts during the late 1920s through the early 1960s...
as Malcolm, and Helen Baisley as the Lady-in-waiting. The following month he appeared at the NYCO as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
with Mary Hensley as Cio-Cio-San. After the production closed he played Jigger in Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's Carousel
Carousel (musical)
Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline...
at the West Palm Beach Musicarnival with Stephen Douglass
Stephen Douglass
Stephen Douglass is an American actor-singer.Born Stephen Fitch in Mount Vernon, Ohio, Douglass has had a distinguished theatrical career and has appeared occasionally on television. He was the last performer to play Billy Bigelow in the original Broadway production of Carousel and he created the...
as Billy in January–February 1958.
On April 6, 1958 Chapman portrayed Tracy Gates opposite Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway is an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. She is particularly remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of several contemporary American operas, most notably Magda Sorel in...
as Laura Gates in the first professional production of Mark Bucci
Mark Bucci
Mark Bucci was an American composer, lyricist, and dramatist. Influenced by Giacomo Puccini, his work is composed in a contemporary yet lyrical style which frequently employs marked rhythms and memorable harmonies and melodies.-Career:Bucci studied music composition with Tibor Serly in New York...
's Tale for a Deaf Ear
Tale for a Deaf Ear
Tale for a Deaf Ear is an opera in one act with music and lyrics by Mark Bucci, sung in three languages and based on a story by Elizabeth Enright that appeared in the April 1951 edition of Harper's Magazine. The work was commissioned by Samuel Wechsler for performance at the 1957 Tanglewood Music...
at the NYCO under the baton of Arnold Gamson
Arnold Gamson
Arnold U. Gamson is an American conductor who is particularly known for his work within the field of opera. He notably co-founded and served as the Music Director and principal conductor of the American Opera Society from 1950-1960...
. He next portrayed Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd
Carlisle Floyd is an American opera composer. The son of a Methodist minister, he based many of his works on themes from the South...
's Susannah
Susannah
Susannah is an opera in two acts by American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending...
with Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
in the title role and Robert Moulson
Robert Moulson
Robert Moulson was an American classical tenor who had an active international career in operas and concerts from the late 1950s through the 1980s...
as Sam Polk in May 1958. The following June he sang Macbeth opposite Shakeh Vartenissian as Lady Macbeth for the opening of the very first Festival dei Due Mondi
Festival dei Due Mondi
The Festival dei Due Mondi ' is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958...
under the baton of Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers was an American conductor. He was highly-regarded for his work in opera.-Biography:...
and the Trieste Philharmonic Orchestra.
In August 1958 Chapman portrayed the Prisoner in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's Maria Golovin
Maria Golovin
Maria Golovin is an English language opera in three acts by Gian Carlo Menotti. It is through-composed and centers on a romantic encounter between a blind recluse named Donato and the title character, a married woman living in a European country a few years after a recent war...
at the Brussels World's Fair. He continued with the production when it premiered on Broadway in November 1958 at the Martin Beck Theatre under the umbrella of the NBC Opera Theatre. The following year he sang the role again with the NYCO. His other roles at the NYCO during the late 1950s included Escamillo in Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
with Regina Resnik
Regina Resnik
Regina Resnik is an American operatic singer.Regina Resnik, the American mezzo-soprano, started a dramatic career ten months after earning her B.A. in Music at Hunter College. The role was Lady Macbeth under Fritz Busch in December, 1942 with the New Opera Company. A few months later, she sang...
and Claramae Turner
Claramae Turner
Claramae Turner is an American opera singer. She is perhaps best known for singing You'll Never Walk Alone and some of June Is Bustin' Out all Over in the musical film Carousel, adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical of the same name.Born in Dinuba, California, she was a contralto...
in the title role, Tarquinius in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's The Rape of Lucretia with Frances Bible
Frances Bible
Frances Lillian Bible was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had a thirty long year career at the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1978. She also made a fair number of opera appearances with other companies throughout the United States, but only made a limited number of appearances abroad...
in the title role, Frank Maurrant in Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's Street Scene
Street Scene (opera)
Street Scene is a Broadway musical or, more precisely, an "American opera" by Kurt Weill , Langston Hughes , and Elmer Rice...
, and Captain Corcoran in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
.
Later career
In 1960 Chapman portrayed Reverend Lapp in the original production of Frank LoesserFrank Loesser
Frank Henry Loesser was an American songwriter who wrote the lyrics and scores to the Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, among others. He won separate Tony Awards for the music and lyrics in both shows, as well as sharing the Pulitzer Prize for...
's Greenwillow
Greenwillow
Greenwillow is a musical with a book by Lesser Samuels and Frank Loesser and music and lyrics by Loesser.Based on the novel by B. J. Chute, the fantasy is set in the magical town of Greenwillow, where the eldest in each generation of Briggs men must obey the "call to wander," while the women they...
which opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in March after playing at Philadelphia's Shubert Theatre. In October 1960 he returned to the NYCO to sing Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
with Arnold Voketaitis
Arnold Voketaitis
Arnold Voketaitis is an American bass-baritone of Lithuanian descent who had an active singing career performing in operas, concerts, and recitals from the late 1950s through the 1990s. He enjoyed a particularly successful partnership with the New York City Opera and has performed with most of the...
as the Pirate King and Ruth Kobart
Ruth Kobart
Ruth Kobart was an American performer, whose six-decade career encompassed opera, Broadway musical theatre, regional theatre, films, and television.-Life and career:...
as Ruth and Marcello in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
with Karol Loraine as Musetta, Dolores Mari as Mimì, and David Poleri as Rodolfo. In 1961 he took over the role of the Pirate King from Voketaitis and also appeared at the City Opera that year as Michele in Puccini's Il tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
with Arlene Saunders
Arlene Saunders
Arlene Saunders is an American spinto soprano opera singer. After making her operatic debut as Rosalinde von Eisenstein, in Die Fledermaus, with the National Opera Company in 1958, she made her first appearance with the New York City Opera in 1961, as Giorgetta in Il tabarro...
as Giorgetta and Count Almaviva in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
with Doris Jung as the Countess among other roles.
In 1962 Chapman sang Escamillo for Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus television program discussing the opera Carmen. He sang the role again later that year at both the Spoleto Festival and the NYCO. At Spoleto he also appeared in the world premiere of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
's play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is a play written by Tennessee Williams.It debuted at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, in July 1962. Its first American production was in January 1963, but it only ran for 69 performances at the Morosco Theatre in New York. Reviews of the play...
. In March 1962 he portrayed Horace Tabor in Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe
The Ballad of Baby Doe
The Ballad of Baby Doe is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore's most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory...
opposite Beverly Sills in the title role and the Secret Police Agent in Menotti's The Consul
The Consul
The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Its first performance was on March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as the lead heroine Magda Sorel, Gloria Lane as the secretary of the consulate,...
.
In the 1964-1965 season Chapman added four new roles to his NYCO repertoire: Rangoni in Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
with Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. was the son and namesake of operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. He was born in Moscow, Russia, and had a distinguished career in acting throughout Europe, mainly in Italy. His mother was Iola Tornagi, a noted ballerina who quit ballet and acting to take care of Feodor and his...
in the title role; Jochanaan in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
with Norman Kelley
Norman Kelley
Norman Kelley is a freelance journalist, author, and former segment producer at WBAI 99.5 FM.Kelley has written for numerous publications, including LA Weekly, The Village Voice, Newsday, and Brooklyn Rail...
as Herod, Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway
Patricia Neway is an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. She is particularly remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of several contemporary American operas, most notably Magda Sorel in...
as Herodias, and Curtin in the title role; Boris in Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op.29. The libretto was written by Alexander Preis and the composer, and is based on the story Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is sometimes referred to informally as Lady Macbeth...
with Richard Krause as Zinoviy, Eileen Schauler as Katerina, and Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly
Richard Cassilly was an American operatic tenor who had a major international opera career between 1954 and 1990...
as Sergei; and Colonel Calverley in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience
Patience (opera)
Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. First performed at the Opera Comique, London, on 23 April 1881, it moved to the 1,292-seat Savoy Theatre on 10 October 1881, where it was the first theatrical production in the...
with Emile Renan
Emile Renan
Emile Renan was an American operatic bass-baritone and stage director who had a long association with the New York City Opera. He also performed as a guest artist with the other opera companies in North America throughout his career...
as Reginald and Claramae Turner as Lady Jane. He continued to perform annually at the NYCO throughout the rest of the 1960s, but did not add any more new roles to his repertoire with the company until 1969 when he portrayed Khan Konchak in Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
's Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
.
In 1966 Chapman portrayed the King opposite Janet Blair as Anna in Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
in the National Tour of the production. In 1971 he sang the title role in Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele...
's Mefistofele
Mefistofele
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
for the first time at the NYCO. Other NYCO roles for him during the 1970s included the four villains in Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's The Tales of Hoffmann, Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
, and Étienne in Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
's Naughty Marietta
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
. His last appearance at the NYCO was in October 1979 as Frank Maurrant in Kurt Weill's Street Scene, a production which was broadcast live on PBS's Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
.
During the 1970s Chapman made several guest appearances at the Hawaii Opera Theatre
Hawaii Opera Theatre
The Hawaii Opera Theatre is an opera company located in Honolulu, Hawaii, which became active in 1961. The company typically performs three operas during February and March in Blaisdell Concert Hall...
, portraying such roles as Amonasro in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Mefistofele, Olin Blitch, and the title role in The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman (opera)
Der fliegende Holländer is an opera, with music and libretto by Richard Wagner.Wagner claimed in his 1870 autobiography Mein Leben that he had been inspired to write "The Flying Dutchman" following a stormy sea crossing he made from Riga to London in July and August 1839, but in his 1843...
. He also made guest appearances at the Florentine Opera
Florentine Opera
The Florentine Opera Company is Wisconsin's oldest fully professional performing arts organization and the sixth-oldest opera company in the United States. The company presents on three staged productions per season largely from the standard operatic repertoire...
in Milwaukee and the Canadian Opera Company
Canadian Opera Company
The Canadian Opera Company is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and the third largest producer of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.-History:For 40 years until...
. In 1976 he replaced John Collum
John Collum
John K. Collum was an American child actor of the 1930s.-Career:Born in Illinois, Collum was the son of Hal Roach's casting director, Joseph Collum, and appeared in twenty-six of Roach's Our Gang comedies from 1932 to 1938...
as Charlie Anderson in the original Broadway run of Gary Geld's Shenandoah
Shenandoah (musical)
Shenandoah is a musical that was written in 1975 with music by Gary Geld, lyrics by Peter Udell, and a book by Udell, Philip Rose and James Lee Barrett, based on Barrett's original screenplay for the 1965 film Shenandoah.-Productions:...
.
Since the early 1980s, Chapman has lived in Los Angeles with his wife Irene where he dedicates most of his time to teaching singing. He also taught on the voice faculty of the University of San Diego
University of San Diego
The University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic university in San Diego, California. USD offers more than sixty bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral programs...
. He still occasionally performs in Los Angeles theatre.