WILLIAM WARFIELD: The American bass-baritone William Warfield, who died on August 25th aged 82, rose to fame through his portrayal of Porgy in a legendary production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which toured the US and went to the Vienna Staatsoper and halls in Berlin and London in 1952/53. He sang opposite the soprano Leontyne Price, whom he married in the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, with the whole cast of Porgy in attendance, on the day before the production set off for Europe. The two singers provid
William Warfield had the plangent voice and appealing stage presence to accept the many opportunities the opera offered him to exploit those attributes, and the pair showed an affinity with each other's work. Recorded excerpts from the opera, released in 1963, confirm the hegemony of Price and William Warfield in their roles.
William Warfield was born the eldest of five sons of a Baptist minister in West Helena, Arkansas, where he received his earliest vocal training. His family moved to Rochester, New York, in order to find better educational opportunities. At 18, he won first prize in the National Music Educators' League competition, which enabled him to study at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. During the second World War he served in the US army's intelligence service.
After demobilisation, he completed his bachelor's degree at Eastman, and he made his stage début on Broadway in 1949 in the première of Marc Blitzstein's opera Regina. The following year he was acclaimed at his first concert appearance in New York, and he followed that with a concert tour of Australia, and the role of Joe, the singer of Ol' Man River, in the 1951 film of Jerome Kern's Showboat. Then he was cast as Porgy in what was to prove the high point of his career.
Back in the US, he was much in demand as a concert singer, especially in oratorio. In 1955, he went on a concert tour with Eugene Ormandy and his Philadelphia Orchestra, then at the height of its powers. In 1956, he took the bass part in a performance of Mozart's Requiem under Bruno Walter at Carnegie Hall in New York, which was recorded at the same time and shows the real quality of his voice. In the same year he recorded Handel's Messiah under the baton of Leonard Bernstein.
He returned to the role of Porgy in 1961 in New York and to Showboat at various later points in his career. But he never quite achieved the fame on stage that his original performances promised. He was a popular singer on both radio and television, where his relaxed manner was a distinct asset.
In 1975, he gave a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall, marking the 25th anniversary of his New York début, and in 1984 he received a Grammy for his narration of Copland's A Lincoln Portrait.
He latterly held teaching posts at Illinois and Northwestern universities, from 1975 and 1994, respectively. He received several doctorates from universities for his gifts as an artist and teacher.
From 1984 he was chairman of the National Association of Negro Musicians.
He and Price separated in 1958 - although they continued to work on friendly terms - and divorced in 1972.
He is survived by two brothers.
William Warfield: born 1920; died, August 25th, 2002