Former Faculty (1988-2005)

The Schools mourns the loss of Mr. Uppman who died on March 19, 2005. Theodor Uppman was a leading baritone at the Metropolitan Opera for twenty-four years and also sang hundreds of recitals throughout the United States and Canada. His early training was at the Curtis Institute of Music and the opera workshops at Stanford University and the University of Southern California. His studies were interrupted by World War II, and he spent over two years in military service in France. His professional debut was in 1947, as Pelléas, in a concert version of Pelléas et Mélisande with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux conducting. In 1953 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the same role and again with Monteux. He was chosen by Benjamin Britten to create the title role in that composer’s Billy Budd at London’s Royal Opera, conducted by the composer. A year later he sang the American premiere of the opera on television with the NBC-TV Opera Theater, and in 1970 he sang it with the Chicago Lyric Opera, in the first professionally staged performance in the United States. A role that many people remember him for is Papageno, which he first sang with Bruno Walter, and which he sang a total of sixty times at the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Uppman sang with most of the leading orchestras throughout the United States, and with many of the opera companies. Summers took him to Santa Fe, Central City, Mexico City, Aix-en-Provence, Berlin, and to England’s Aldeburgh Festival. He was made an honorary director of the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies and taught master classes there for several summers. He has also taught at Glimmerglass Opera, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and the Peabody Conservatory, as well as in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Uppman has been on the voice faculties of the Mannes College of Music since 1977 and Manhattan School of Music since 1988. Mr. Uppman appeared often on radio and television, including The Telephone Hour and on The Voice of Firestone. A compact disc has been made of excerpts from the Telephone Hour broadcasts. Manhattan School of Music faculty from 1988-2005.

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