Jerome Hines

Above: Jerome Hines as Wotan in DIE WALKURE at Bayreuth.

Jerome Hines, the tall American basso, holds the record for the longest career of a principal artist at The Metropolitan Opera: between 1946 and 1987, Hines sang 875 performances with the Company in New York City and on tour. I saw him for the first time in 1963 as Mephistopheles in FAUST, one of eight performances I saw at The Old Met before it was demolished.

In the ensuing seasons, I saw Hines as Alvise in GIOCONDA and Colline in BOHEME, as well as in a concert performance of scenes from BORIS GODUNOV at Carnegie Hall. The basso’s career took him to La Scala, the Bolshoi, Buenos Aires, and to the festivals at Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, and Bayreuth.

At the Bayreuth Festival, Jerome Hines appeared as Gurnemanz, King Marke, and as Wotan, from which role the following excerpt is drawn:

Jerome Hines – WALKURE finale – Kempe cond – Bayreuth 1960

Jerome Hines passed away in 2003, having sung in public for the last time two years earlier as the Grand Inquisitor in concert at Boston.