Cornell MacNeil | Opera baritone, 88

Cornell MacNeil, 88, a great postwar American baritone best known for his roles in Verdi operas, died Friday in Charlottesville, Va. His death was announced by his wife, Tania.

A pure baritone with power from low to high notes, he was considered the equal of Leonard Warren and Robert Merrill, the other stellar American Verdi baritones during the second half of the 20th century.

From 1959 to 1987, he sang 26 roles in more than 600 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera. But he reached his peak in his Verdi performances.

"The larger and more complex the part, the better he was," James Levine, the Met's longtime conductor, said in 2007.

Mr. MacNeil made his opera debut when composer-director Gian Carlo Menotti cast him as the male lead in The Consul, which opened March 1, 1950, at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia.

Mr. MacNeil signed a contract with the Met after making his debut there March 21, 1959 - barely two weeks after his La Scala debut - as the lead in Verdi's Rigoletto. He would sing that role at the Met more than 100 times.

Before leaving the stage, Mr. MacNeil gave an opinion of the opera world to Met colleague Jerome Hines, for a 1982 book, Great Singers on Great Singing: "Opera is an excessive art form populated by excessive people. We make it more excessive than necessary. Singing is really a very simple thing."
- N.Y. Times News Service