I have downloaded several videos featuring the operatic performances of Mark S. Doss (bass-tenor). Most African Americans who took to the opera stage were Women. It is sometimes hard to find many early African American males who became popular between (1920-1960). I will be concentrating on finding and uploading African American males singers in the next few weeks. enjoy
Mark S. Doss
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark Steven Doss (born July 2, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio) is a Grammy Award-winning African-American bass-baritone, specializing in opera, concert and recital. He has performed major roles with many international opera companies, including Milan's La Scala, Vienna State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Brussels' La Monnaie, Canadian Opera Company, and Oper Frankfurt. He divides his time between Toronto, Ontario and Erie, Pennsylvania.
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Early life and education
Mark S. Doss was born on July 2, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Cleveland's East Technical High School, where in addition to avid participation in varsity sports he took drama and chorus, and performed in a school production of Godspell. Following high school, and a summer work-study program dedicated to training in the performing arts, he pursued a lifelong ambition to become a Catholic priest, enrolling in the formation program (seminary) at Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana.
While at Saint Joseph's, Doss continued to take music courses and performed in recitals and musical theatre productions. After two years, he left the seminary and became a secular student at the college, graduating with a BA in music and sociology.
After graduating from Saint Joseph's, Doss entered the Master's Degree program at Indiana University's School of Music (1980–83), studying voice with Walter Cassel and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. Doss's first operatic performance was in the role of Khan Konchak in the Indiana University Musical Theatre's production of Borodin's Prince Igor. He performed a total of six roles at Indiana University, including that of Mephistopheles in Faust, which he has reprised on several occasions throughout his professional career.
Career
Following an apprenticeship with the Santa Fe Opera in 1983, where he worked with Nico Castel, Thomas Stuart, Martin Katz, and John Fiore, he then became an ensemble member of Chicago's Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. After a two-year stint in Chicago, Doss commenced his professional career in January 1986 as a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Since then, Doss has performed at many leading international opera companies, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Canadian Opera Company, San Francisco Opera, Brussels' Théâtre de la Monnaie, Deutsche Opera Berlin, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Oper Frankfurt, New York City Opera, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Teatro alla Scala.
His roles have included the Title Role in Boito's Mefistofele, Escamillo in Carmen, Mephistopheles in Faust, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the High Priest in Samson et Dalila, Jaroslav Prus in The Makropulos Case, Jochanaan in Salome, Amonasro in Aida, Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri, Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride, Alidoro in La Cenerentola (Cinderella), Argante in Rinaldo, Scarpia in Tosca, among others. In the course of his career, Doss has performed with operatic artists such as Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming and Denyce Graves.
Doss made his debut at Milan's La Scala in 2004 in the role of Escamillo in Carmen. Since then, he has been a regular performer at La Scala, most recently in the role Amonasro in the opera's production of Verdi's Aida on July 6, 2009. In 2009, Doss performed the roles of Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust with Opera Tampa, Amonasro in Verdi's Aida at La Scala and in Tel Aviv (with La Scala on Tour), Jochanaan in Strauss' Salome with the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and Premysl in Sarka[disambiguation needed] with La Fenice in Venice.
His 2010 engagements included a tour of Italian opera houses (many being debuts) as Jochanaan in Salome with Florence's Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Arena di Verona as Escamillo in Carmen, Balstrode in Peter Grimes with the Teatro Regio di Torino, Jochanaan at Bologna's Teatro Comunale, and Escamillo at the Teatro Municipale di Salerno. Doss had also been contracted for a return performance with the Canadian Opera Company in the fall of 2011.
When he is not touring, Doss divides his time between residences in Toronto, Canada, and Pennsylvania. He is married to Dawn Rivard and has two sons from previous relationships.
Biography
MARK S. DOSS, BASS-BARITONE
Grammy Award winner, Mark S. Doss, has sung 55 roles in more than 60 major opera houses around the world, the most notable being Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera.
Mr. Doss first sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City at the age of 28, and a few months later won First Prize in the International Verdi Competition in Busetto, Italy. Adding another great achievement to his list, he began the current 2012/2013 season singing the title role in The Flying Dutchman with the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, followed by his most performed role of Escamillo in Carmen with the same company. This past summer found him singing the title role of Paul Rayment in Nicholas Lens’ world premiere of the opera Slow Man in Poznan, Poland, which was done between concert performances as the cantor in Earnest Bloch’s Sacred Service in Houston, Texas, and the bass-baritone soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (“Ode to Joy” movement) at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan.
Mr. Doss sang the role of Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride to open the Canadian Opera Company’s 2011-2012 season. The previous summer he took the stage as Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust with the Santa Fe Opera, and prior to that made his debut with the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy, as Priest Grigoris in The Greek Passion. In March of 2011 he successfully made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Amonasro in Aida.
Having sung under the batons of notable conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim, and Robert Shaw, Mr. Doss has been featured with the major orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago and Philadelphia. During the 2012 holiday season, Mr. Doss was once again welcomed back to Chicago as the bass soloist in Handel’s Do-It-Yourself Messiah, one of the city’s most beloved holiday traditions.
Upcoming engagements include double bill performances at Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza in Sarka and Cavalleria Rusticana, playing the roles of Premysl and Alfio (Feb. 2013), the title role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Mar. 2013), Amonasro in Aida at the San Diego Opera (April 2013), and The Four Villains in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann with Opera Tokyo (Nov. /Dec. 2013).
Mr. Doss was awarded Planet Africa’s prestigious Entertainment Award in October of 2011, and accentuating his sports related background has become a highly sought after anthem performer, singing for a Tampa Bay Storm / Cleveland Gladiators football game in Tampa in April 2012, and the National Anthems at a Toronto Blue Jays / Boston Red Sox baseball game in Toronto in September 2011.
San Diego Opera Podcast - An Interview with Mark S. Doss\
Mark S. Doss, Toreador
Mark S. Doss on singing Mephisto
Mark S. Doss as Jochanaan in Salome
Mark S. Doss on Strombo: MY DEFINING MOMENT
Mark S. Doss as Der Holländer
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