Ara Berberian, Bass Singer in Opera and Musical Theater, Dies at 74
NY Times
Ara Berberian, a warm-voiced bass who sang for 20 years at the Metropolitan Opera, died early Monday in his sleep at his winter home in Boynton Beach, Fla. He was 74.
The cause was heart failure, said his wife, Ginny.
Mr. Berberian’s operatic repertory included more than 100 roles, from Pimen and Varlaam in Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” to Don Basilio in “The Barber of Seville.” He sang everywhere from New York to Tel Aviv, San Francisco to Japan. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1979, appearing in Meyerbeer’s “Prophète,” and continued to appear there for more than 300 performances, until a final “La Bohème” in 1997.
He was not exclusively an opera singer. Other notable credits included the 1964 studio recording of “Oklahoma!,” in which he sang Jud Fry to John Raitt’s Curly; and a performance of the national anthem before a World Series game in 1984, when the Detroit Tigers were playing the San Diego Padres, an experience he described as more exciting than his Met debut.
Born on May 14, 1930, in Detroit to Armenian parents, Mr. Berberian attended the Culver Military Academy in Indiana before continuing on to the University of Michigan, where he studied economics and then earned a law degree; he practiced law for a year. Mr. Berberian, whose uncle had been a professional boxer, also flirted with a career in sports, pitching for the minor-league Kansas City Athletics before deciding in favor of classical music. He did remain in touch with the baseball world through a Culver classmate, George Steinbrenner.
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