King, James, 1788 or 1789-1841

Epithet: Chamberlain of the Linen Hall, Dublin

James King (fl 1848) was a surveyor.

Epithet: Reverend; lecturer at St. Martin's, Ludgate

Epithet: singer and teacher

Epithet: solicitor, of Glasgow

Epithet: of Dublin

Born in Dodge City, Kansas on May 22, 1925, James Ambrose King began singing in junior high at the age of 14. As a youth, he also played the violin. By the time he had graduated from Dodge City High School, the United States had entered World War Two and King served for two and a half years in the United States Navy Air Corps. Upon the conclusion of the war, King studied at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge with Dallas Draper. During this period he studied French, German, and Italian, and gave numerous performances in the opera department including the roles of Valentin in Faust, the Count in Figaro, and other baritone roles. After receiving his Bachelor of Music degree in 1950, he continued on to receive his Master of Arts from the University of Kansas City in 1952 where he studied under Hardin van Deursen. Following the completion of his studies he accepted a position as an instructor at the University of Kentucky where he taught voice, music history courses, voice pedagogy, and directed choirs until 1961. During this period he performed numerous operettas and musicals, chorus parts, and small solo roles in the Kansas City Starlight Theater.

At the age of thirty-one King began to make the difficult transition from baritone to tenor studying under Martial Singher, the famous French baritone who was also renowned as a teacher. In 1959, King took an eight month sabbatical and studied with Singher in Philadelphia. The transition complete, in 1961 he entered the American Opera Auditions at Cincinnati, and on May 19 he made his official debut singing the tenor role of Don José in Carmen with the Spring Opera Theater of San Francisco opposite Marilyn Horne. When the tenor who had won the American Opera Auditions couldn’t get out of a previous contract, King went in his place to Florence where he performed Cavardossi in Tosca and then joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1962 where he debuted as Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschers, and until 1965 he performed fifty to sixty performances a year there. In 1963 he sang his first Wagner role, Lohengrin, and the same year he debuted as Bacchus in Adriadne at the Vienna State Opera. In the following years he generally conducted 15 to 20 performances annually. Other performances followed in rapid succession including the role of Kaiser in Die Frau Ohne Schatten at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, at the Salzburg Festival in Iphigenie en Aulide and at the Bayreuth Festival as Siegmund in Die Walküre . After establishing himself firmly in Germany and Austria, King returned to the United States to make his New York Metropolitan debut as Florestan in Fidelio .

Throughout the 1970s, King’s career continued in a similar path; he returned regularly to the Metropolitan for roles including Siegmund, Lohengrin, Stolzing in Die Meistersinger, Bacchus, the Kaiser, Don Jose, and Calaf in Turnadot . He appeared often with the San Francisco Opera performing Manrico in Il Trovatore, Canio in Pagliacci and Otello . He debuted at the Bolshoi Opera in Otello and also often performed at La Scala in Milan, the Teatro Colon in Buenes Aires, the Paris Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. King also maintained strong ties with the major music festivals in Europe including the Salzburg Festival.

In 1984, James King joined the faculty of Indiana University as a professor of voice in the graduate music program, while at the same time maintaining his professional career. His final public performance was in 2000 at the University where he sang the role of Siegmund in Wagner’s Die Walküre . He remained on the faculty until 2002.

Renowned for specializing in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss in a career that spanned over three decades, James King died on November 27, 2005 at the age of 80. He was married three times and had five children. At the time of this death he was married to Elizabeth Lively.