Sad news: Met bass-baritone has died

Colleagues are sharing their distress at the death yesterday of John Del Carlo, a well-loved American soloist who sang 285 performances at the Metropolitan Opera over the past 23 years. John was 65.

John played the title role in Don Pasquale, Dr Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia , Swallow in Peter Grimes, Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mathieu in Andrea Chenier, Colonel Frank in Die Fledermaus, Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow, and Alfieri in the Met’s premiere of Bolcom’s  A View from the Bridge.

He was also a stalwart at San Francisco Opera, his home town.

Internationally, he sang at Covent Garden, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Trieste, Zurich Cologne, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Vlaamse Opera.