Bass - Baritone  James  Morris

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie



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Bass-baritone James Morris (born January 10, 1947) is world famous for his performances in opera, concert, recital, and recording. With a repertoire including works by Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Mozart, Gounod and Britten, Mr. Morris has performed in virtually every international opera house and has appeared with the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

morris Considered one of the greatest interpreters of the role of Wotan in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Mr. Morris has appeared in this role at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and many others. He is also highly acclaimed for the title role in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Scarpia in Tosca in the major houses of the United States and Europe.

[Vis-ä-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Judith Blegen, and Robert Shaw.]

Mr. Morris’ celebrated career at the Metropolitan Opera has included three complete cycles of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both recorded for television and available on DVD.  He originated the role of John Claggart in the MET premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd and has repeated the role in each revival.  Frequently performed roles at the MET include the title role in Der fliegende Holländer (new production), Scarpia in Tosca, The Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and the title roles in Don Giovanni and Boris Godunov.

Concert appearances have included performances with the world’s celebrated orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, London’s BBC Proms, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; the Chicago Symphony and several appearances at the Cincinnati May Festival. He has also appeared frequently in recitals in cities including Minneapolis, Baltimore, Washington D.C. and at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

Mr. Morris’s extensive discography includes two complete Ring cycles, one for Deutsche Grammophon under James Levine and one for EMI under Bernard Haitink, and other operas of Wagner, Offenbach, Mozart, Massenet, Verdi and Gounod. He has recorded operas by Donizetti, Puccini, Bellini and Thomas with Dame Joan Sutherland, and his orchestral recordings include Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 “Choral” and the Requiems by Mozart and Fauré [shown in this box].  He also has a recording of arias by Verdi and Wagner by Mr. Morris is available on the Angel/EMI label.

James Morris is a four-time Grammy winner: for Best Opera Recording for Die Walküre (1989) and Das Rheingold (1990) both with the Metropolitan Opera and for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony (Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance 2009).   He was also nominated for Thomas’ Desire Under the Elms (Best Opera Recording 2003), and Siegfried (Best Opera Recording 1992).

In 2014 James Morris was appointed to the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music as Professor of Voice.

Born and educated in Baltimore, Maryland, Mr. Morris studied at the Peabody Conservatory and studied with Rosa Ponselle. He continued his education at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts where he studied with basso Nicola Moscona.


==  Text of biography from Colbert Artists Management  
==  Names which are links in this box and below refer to my interviews elsewhere on my website.  BD  




James Morris has performed in Chicago on several occasions, and a full list can be seen in the box at the bottom of this webpage.  When he was here in the fall of 1993, he graciously took time from his busy schedule to have an interview.  Our conversation was both deeply probing and often hilarious!  Portions were broadcast on WNIB, Classical 97, and now [2025] the entire chat has been transcribed and posted on this webpage.

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Bruce Duffie:   Recently you’ve been moving into the Wagner parts almost exclusively.  Do you like coming back to these parts again, and again?

James Morris:   Yes, absolutely.  This is one thing that I’m always trying to change people’s minds.  They think once you start singing Wagner that you become a Wagner singer, and that’s all you do.  When I started in the Wagner repertoire back in 1984, I was very adamant about not just specializing in Wagner, because I love the Italian and French repertoire.  In fact, when I told Ricky Bonynge that I was thinking about going into Wagner, I was doing Semiramide with him in San Francisco, and he said that if I started singing that, I’d never do this stuff again.  So I told him that if I found physically or vocally I couldn’t sing the other things, then I wouldn’t sing Wagner.  I like the Italian and French repertoire too much to give it up.  [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left (which is conducted by Bonynge), see my interviews with Sherrill Milnes, and Nicolai Ghiaurov.]  Once I started in the Wagner, I realized that it wasn’t harming my voice in any way.  In fact, it was expanding it, and making the other roles that much easier to sing.  What I did find, especially doing the Ring, was that once you start singing Wagner, that’s all people want to hire you for.  I guess it’s because there aren’t that many people who sing those parts.  For a couple of years, I noticed that ninety percent of my schedule was Wagner.

BD:   Do you make sure your agent gets you some Italian and French roles?

Morris:   Right, exactly, because I love things like Don Giovanni, and Tosca, and King Philip, and Méphistophélès in Faust.  These are the roles that I’ve done for my whole career, and I never want to give those up.  So I’m very adamant all the time about telling people that I’m not a Wagner singer, but a singer who sings Wagner!  [Both laugh]  In fact, the only Wagner roles I do are the three Wotans and the Flying Dutchman.  They’re the only ones that I’ve gotten into so far.  I’ve had lots of other people urge me to do some other things, like Hans Sachs, for example.  I’ve looked at it, but it just hasn’t warmed my heart yet.  But I’ve got to start looking at it seriously because there have been too many people after me to do it.

BD:   If you had to decide without anybody else pressuring you, would you even think about Hans Sachs?

Morris:   I don’t know.  I got pushed into Wotan, so look what happened!  I just haven’t really given Sachs a chance yet.  I’ve looked at it sporadically, but I haven’t really delved into it.  I’m sure that once I do, I will fall in love with it like I did with Wotan.

BD:   Do you talk to other singers who have sung Hans Sachs and Wotan, to make sure it is right for you?

Morris:   I’ve looked at it vocally, and it’s no problem that way.

BD:   It’s long...

Morris:   It’s very long.  It’s like three Wotans together, and that’s one of the things which has kept me away from it.  But for example, for years people had been saying that I should look at Wotan, and that it would be a good role for me.  But every time I picked up a score and started looking at it, I was asleep in five or ten minutes!  I thought, oh, God, no, I’m not going to get into this!  It wasn’t until 1980, when two people whose opinions I respect very much — Bliss Hebert, a director that I’ve worked with many times, and Terry McEwen, who was head of the San Francisco Opera — both came to me within a month of each other, and said I really had to get into Wotan.  

hebert Bliss Hebert has staged over 200 productions of more than 80 operas with 25 different companies, including the Metropolitan Opera for Les Contes d'Hoffman with Joan Sutherland and Placido Domingo, Lyric Opera of Chicago for Manon with Renata Scotto, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera for a new production of Orpheus in the Underworld; Houston Grand Opera for Dialogues of the Carmelites and Turandot; Dallas Opera for a De Falla triple bill (Master Peter's Puppet Show, La Vida Breve, and El Amor Brujo), L'Inocoronazione di Poppea, Les Contes d'Hoffman, Lucia di Lammermoor, Werther, Romeo et Juliette, L'Italiana in Algeri, L'Opera de Montreal for Samson et Dalila, Der Rosenkavalier, Turandot, and Manon Lescaut; Florida Grand Opera for The Turn of the Screw, Les Contes d'Hoffman, Tosca, Die Walküre, La Voix Humaine, Il Tabarro, and La Gioconda; San Diego Opera for Salome, Werther, and Dialogues of the Carmelites,  New Orleans Opera for Tristan und Isolde and Lohengrin; and Baltimore Opera for Turandot, Lucia di Lammermoor, Turandot, Romeo et Juliette, and Norma. 

Among other companies for whom he has directed are the Caramoor Festival, Canadian Opera, Virginia Opera, and the companies of Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Tulsa, Fort Worth, Vancouver, and Washington Opera Society, where he was General Manager from 1960 until 1963.

Recent notable engagements include a highly acclaimed production of Der Rosenkavalier for the Florentine Opera, Salome and Madama Butterfly for the Florida Grand Opera, La Boheme for The Atlanta Opera, and Dallas Opera to direct La Traviata and Turandot.  His new production of Aida has been seen at the Florida Grand Opera, Michigan Opera, and the Florentine Opera and Cincinnati Opera.  Recently, Mr. Hebert returned to Detroit and to Atlanta to revive his famous production of Turandot.  His new production of La Traviata has been seen at the Florida Grand Opera and the Cincinnati Opera.  This past season, his Aida was seen again in Cincinnati and Detroit. 

Well-known as a pianist and vocal coach, he has been associated with such singers as Callas, Simionato, Price, Moffo, Tourel, Farrell, Horne, Verrett, Vickers and Berganza.  He worked as personal music assistant to Igor Stravinsky preparing his vocal works for performances conducted by the composer.  He has staged 15 different productions of Stravinsky's operas.

He has also staged the American premieres of Britten's Three Parables, Henze's King Stag and Boulevard Solitude, Chabrier's Le Roi Malgré Lui and Schoenberg's Von Heute auf Morgen.  His productions of Le Rossignol and Oedipus Rex appear on CBS Records.  In addition, he was Chorus Master on the CBS recording of Boris Godunov starring George London, and, on other CBS recordings, may be heard as pianist and harpsichordist in works of Bach, Schoenberg and Berg. He is pianist on 2 Serenus recordings of contemporary songs for baritone.

A native of Faust, New York, and currently residing in France, Mr. Hebert began his study of piano at the age of 3 and at 5 was appearing in recitals.  Planning a career as a concert pianist, he continued his musical studies at Syracuse University where he received a B.A. degree and a Master of Music degree.  He was a piano pupil of Robert Goldsand in New York and of Leila Gousseau in Paris.

==  Article and photo from Pinnacle Arts Management  


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mcewen Terence A. McEwen (13 April 1929 – 14 September 1998) was a Canadian opera manager.

Though born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, McEwen grew up in the Montreal area where he learned to love opera and listened to the Met broadcasts. Aged fourteen, he made a trip to New York one winter break to hear several of his favourite operas, which included Bidú Sayão and Jussi Björling in Rigoletto. As a singer, Sayão was forever to remain his passion, one which was accentuated by seeing her in Manon performances in Montreal.

His passion for opera in general led him to visit the Royal Opera House in London and a lowly paid job with Decca Records in that city. Moving up the ranks in the 1950s, he landed in New York in 1959 and for the next 20 years made London Records, Decca's classical arm, the most significant label in the United States.

After being approached by San Francisco Opera Director Kurt Herbert Adler regarding a job, McEwen moved to the city in 1980 and immersed himself in learning the operations of an opera company. By January 1982 McEwen was running the Opera.

Given his expertise and background in understanding the wonders of the human voice, it is not surprising that his approach in his early years was away from the theatrical and more focused on the vocal. With his Ring Cycle, which began in the Summer 1983 and Fall 1984 seasons (and which was presented in its entirety in June 1985), McEwen demonstrated where his priorities lay: they were focused on hiring the best singers in the world.

As a reaction to the economic climate of the times, in 1982 McEwen created the "San Francisco Opera Center" to oversee and combine the operation and administration of the numerous affiliate educational and training programs. Providing a coordinated sequence of performance and study opportunities for young artists, the San Francisco Opera Center includes the "Merola Opera Program", "Adler Fellowship Program", "Showcase Series", "Brown Bag Opera", "Opera Center Singers", "Schwabacher Recitals", and various Education Programs. By introducing his young singers to the great voices of the past, inviting them to rehearsals, and giving tickets to current productions, McEwen hoped to create rounded performers who could appear in the regular Fall season.

Amongst his successes in this regard was the mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick from Nevada. By "hand holding"" her through the various stages of training, he prepared her for the role of Azucena in the summer 1986 season to great acclaim.

On 8 February 1988, McEwen announced his resignation. The following day his mentor, Kurt Herbert Adler, died.

McEwen died in Honolulu, Hawaii at age 69.

==  Photo from the San Francisco Chronicle Datebook  




Terry said to start with the ‘Abschied’ in Die Walküre and work backwards.  I didn’t want to start at the beginning, because every time I had listened to Die Walküre, I always started with Act 1, and while sitting in front of a fireplace I was [makes a snoring sound] right out!  So, I started with the ‘Abschied’, and I got hooked.  Then I worked my way backwards.  Terry was actually the one that came up with the first job offer.  That makes a big difference, when you have a job waiting for you two or three years down the road.  That gets you on the stick as far as learning.  Once I got into it, I got totally hooked.  Wagner really gets under your skin, but I don’t ever want to become one of these Wagner snobs, and think as if Wagner is The Only Composer.  But it has happened...  When I was working on Die Walküre, I had to go back and do Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met.  While I was listening to that, I thought it sounded so rinky-dink after Wagner!  But then I told myself not to get that attitude.
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BD:   Maybe if you were doing Philip II, it wouldn’t have sounded quite so simplistic.

Morris:   Right, exactly!  But now I love it when I get back into Verdi and Puccini, and things like that.

BD:   So the first times you were listening to Die Walküre, you sort of fell asleep.  How can you get more audiences who come to their first Die Walküre not to start falling asleep?  [Vis-à-vis the Ring recording shown at left, see my interviews with Kurt Moll, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, and Helga Dernesch, Tatiana Troyanos, Andrea Gruber (the three Norns).]

Morris:   One of the things now that is a big, big help are the surtitles.  I’m a very avid fan of surtitles, and I always have been.  That’s the biggest help in the world.  Beyond that, I don’t know.  I just say to give it a try.  Don’t pass judgment in the first five or ten minutes.  I was doing the Ring in San Francisco in 1985, and I was just doing Das Rheingold and Die Walküre.  Thomas Stewart was doing the Siegfried Wanderer, and I saw in rehearsal from the audience for the first time with surtitles, and it made all the difference in the world.  A five-hour opera seemed like an hour and a half movie!  [Laughs]

BD:   Wagner is music-drama.  For you, where is the balance between the music and the drama?

Morris:   He wrote his own text, so the text and the music are really one.  August Everding, our director, said something interesting the other day, which very few directors realize.  He said that in Wagner, if you’re at a loss as to what to do dramatically, or if you’re unsure of an interpretation, it’s right there in the music!  That’s true, and is something I’ve always said.  I wish more directors would realize this.  I always rely on the music if I am up in the air about a dramatic interpretation.  I’ve always gone with what the music tells me, but it’s rare to hear a director tell you that.

BD:   Without naming names, have you been in productions where they’re gone against what the music has said?

Morris:   Oh, absolutely.

BD:   Is there anything you can do to counteract that?

Morris:   Argue a lot.  [Both laugh, and then Morris becomes facetious]  Throw a temper tantrum and walk out of rehearsal.  No, there have been some occasions where, for example, I didn’t like the production, but I agree with what the director is doing as far as the characterizations and relationships between the characters.  But I hated the physical trappings of the production, the physical surroundings, and that you can live with.  Then there have been other productions I’ve been involved with, again without naming names, that not only did I hate the production, but also the director would approach every single line backwards.  [Laughs]  Black was white, and white was black, and if Wagner had said such-and-such, he must have really meant the opposite.

BD:   Do you try not to work with those directors again?

Morris:   Right.  You do what you can during the rehearsal period and during the performances, and then you never have to work with him again.

BD:   You’ve learned these parts, and you’ve sung them a number of times.  When you come to a new production, do you try to learn new things, and are you always open to new ideas?

Morris:   Oh, absolutely!  It would be a very boring world if you did something once or twice, and for the next thirty years you said that’s the way I do it!  I would like to think that it’s constantly evolving, and twenty years from now it will be different than what it is now.

BD:   Different, or better?

Morris:   Different, but hopefully always better.  Hans Hotter said something very interesting in an interview in Baltimore when I was doing my first Die Walküre.  He came to see it, and he said that you really have to do about a hundred Wotans before you begin to understand it!  [Laughs]  I thought, a hundred???  I think I understand it pretty well, but it’s true.  There are always new things, not just in Wagner, but every time I do a production of Don Giovanni, there is some other little facet that comes to light.  It depends on the director you’re working with.  I’ve also been involved with directors with the Ring, for example, where I was telling them who was singing what line to whom.  I found that appalling.  But I’ve been pretty lucky.  I would say I’ve been able to get something from ninety-five per cent of the directors I’ve worked with.  You compile all these different things, and it becomes your own after a while.

BD:   Is there ever a time when you go then to a new production, and really don’t want to change what you’ve already learned, so you just give them as much as you can?

Morris:   Oh, yes!  You always fall back on things.  I’m very open to trying new things as long as it’s not something new just to be new.  If it’s new, and it makes sense, and there’s a reason for it, fine.  But a lot of the productions nowadays don’t want to do anything that’s already been done, so they ask us to try standing on our head and doing it that way just for the sake of being new.  That is not for me.

BD:   [With a wink]  You’re not going to do a naked Wotan?

Morris:   No, I don’t think so!  [Both laugh]  Besides that would empty the house very quickly!
*     *     *     *     *

BD:   Among the Italian roles, how do you decide which ones you will learn and which ones you will not learn?
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Morris:   I do the ones which speak to me musically and dramatically.  First of all, the part has to be interesting, and the music has to be singable, meaning it has to be in the right range.  So I take those criteria.

BD:   Your voice obviously dictates which roles you can sing.  Do you like those characters which are imposed on your voice?

Morris:   Yes.  In the beginning, when I first started singing, I thought by being a bass you’re always playing a king or somebody’s father, and that’s it.  But I’m pretty lucky because I’m sort of in between.  I’m a bass-baritone, so I do bass roles and some low baritone roles.  I get a very interesting assortment of devils, kings, fathers, and gods.

BD:   You wouldn’t rather be the young lover?  [Vis-à-vis the Ring recording shown at right, see my interviews with Eva Marton, Jane Eaglen, John Tomlinson, Thomas Hampson, and Kiri te Kanawa.]

Morris:   No.  There was a time when I thought that would be nice, but I’d much rather be Scarpia than Cavaradossi.  Cavaradossi is such a cardboard figure.  He gets some great tunes to sing, and it would be fun to do, but Scarpia is a much more interesting and multi-dimensional character.  In Faust, Faust has some of the most gorgeous music in the world to sing, such as ‘Salut, demeure chaste et pure’.  I stand in the wings every night wondering why he didn’t write something like that for the bass.  [Laughs]  But the character of Méphistophélès is one that changes in every scene.  He’s a magician, he’s a conjurer, he’s a jokester, he’s malevolent, he’s powerful, and he’s controlling things.

BD:   [Risking a terrible pun]  He’s a hell of a guy?

Morris:   Yes, right, a hell of a guy.  [Both laugh]  So it’s a fun character.  King Philip, or any of these roles could be very stodgy if you play them one-dimensionally, but with all the pressures that Philip has on his shoulders, and being torn in different directions, and the emotions, it makes it an interesting part.

BD:   Philip is a real historical figure.  Does that make a difference when you’re learning the part, when you’ve got a real role model, rather than just a general idea?

Morris:   Absolutely it does, and it makes the differences as far as your physical appearance.  Although, quite often these actual historical figures turn up in operas, and the plots are nowhere near the actual history.  Whenever I do Philip’s aria in recital, I tell the people the story of the opera.  I also say that this is not historically accurate, but it makes for a hell of an opera.  So, there is a bit of leeway.  I have two new Italian roles coming up that I’m very interested in because they come from Shakespeare, and I’ve been dying to do them.  I do my first Macbeth in March, and then the following year at the Met I do Iago for the first time.  Both of these are roles that I’ve always wanted to do.  When I sang Banquo for the first time, I fell in love with the role of Macbeth.  I thought I’d love to sing that someday, but always felt it was too high, that it was strictly a baritone role.  But over the years my voice has expanded a little bit, so now it’s in the realms of possibility.  So, we’ll see.  There’s always that first hurdle to get by.  Iago was the same thing.  It’s a character that I’ve always loved, and I love the music.  I’ve been asked several times to do it in the past, but I always thought it was too high.  Now I look at it and I find it’s a hell of a lot easier than Macbeth.  So we’ll keep our fingers crossed over the next year.

BD:   Be careful that the voice doesn’t keep moving up and up and up, or you’ll wind up singing Siegfried!

Morris:   Right...  [Both have a huge laugh]

BD:   Thinking about Iago, is he purely evil?

Morris:   Yes.  There are no redeeming qualities to Iago.  He’s like John Claggart in Billy Budd, who is just pure evil, whereas a lot of these other characters have their good points and bad points... though the bad points outweigh the good points.  But those two characters Claggart and Iago are just the personification of evil.  Actually, Claggart is more the personification of evil.  Iago is a manipulator, a conniver, a liar.

BD:   Is there any redeeming quality about Wotan?

Morris:   Oh, absolutely!  Wotan wants to do the right thing, but he got into a hole.  In Rheingold, he had very bad advice from Loge.  I’m sure we can all identify with that to a certain extent.  [Laughs]  We’ve been advised by lawyers or others, and have done the wrong thing.  Wotan started out with this wonderful idea to make things better in the world.  He had all those treaties and laws, but he made mistakes, and he got in deeper and deeper.  He could just do away with all of his treaties and laws, and just do what he wants, but he is honorable enough to know that he can’t do that.  He has to live by these things, but he tries to find a way around them, to go in through the back door.  He thinks that if he can’t do this, maybe he can father somebody who can.  He tries to find a loophole.

BD:   Does he think that Siegmund will be the savior, or does he know in the beginning that he has to wait another generation?

Morris:   I don’t think he knows in the beginning.  He realizes it once he knows that he has to sacrifice Siegmund.  When I first started learning Die Walküre, I thought the ending was just pure sadness and desolation of having to give up his daughter, and having to say good-bye.  I was thinking of a father’s woe, of making this sacrifice.  Hans Hotter made me realize that no, it’s not like that.  He’s said Wotan is happy because he knows that Brünnhilde is going to have a wonderful life, and be rescued by this great warrior.  She’ll be happy as a mortal.  So, I try to get some of that into it, as well as the sadness.  I make a little smile at the end because I know that something wonderful awaits her.  I don’t find out until later that it’s not all that great.  [Laughs]  At the end of Siegfried, it’s the same thing.  Siegfried turns out to be a bit of a disappointment to Wotan because he’s a brat.  He’s a very brash, insolent, disrespectful son of a bitch!  But on the other hand, he’s a very fearless and courageous warrior...

BD:   ...which is what is needed.

Morris:   Right.  In the words on Anna Russell, he’s really courageous because he’s stupid.  He’s very blonde, very handsome, and very stupid.  So, Siegfried when he shatters Wotan’s spear, there’s that moment of incredulousness.  Wotan knows it’s over.  His power has been broken.  But then again, he gets a little smile on his face because he knows this is the right guy to do what he hopes.
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BD:   Wotan has himself decreed that someone must face him and win.

Morris:   Yes, and so as upset as he is to see that his time really is over, he’s glad to pass it on.  He’s glad that he’s been responsible for this.  [Pauses a moment]  It gets so complicated...  Trying to explain it, your tongue works faster than your brain.

BD:   At the end of Act 2 of Die Walküre, he’s willing to sacrifice Siegmund and start over again?

Morris:   He hates everything that Fricka says, but deep down he knows that she’s right, so he’s going to do it again.  Sorry, dear, I’ve got to go wandering for a while...  [Both laugh]  At the end of Act 3, when he puts Brünnhilde to sleep, he knows that Siegfried will be the one to wake Brunnhilde.

BD:   Could Wotan and Fricka ever have been happy?  Or were they really ever happy together?

Morris:   Yes, I think so.... at least I would like to think so.  We never see that moment, but a lot of directors that I have worked with have said that they’re really not mortal enemies yet in Rheingold.  They’re just going through a little tiff, so I would like to think that at one point, they were happy together.  But who knows?

BD:   Is it that we see Wotan too late, like we see Don Giovanni too late?  [Vis-à-vis the Ring video shown at left, much of the cast is the same as the CD shown above-left, except Siegfried Jerusalem is Siegfried in both of the last two operas, Dawn Upshaw is the Forest Bird, Matti Salminen is Fafner in both Rheingold and Siegfried (Rootering sings Fasolt), and in Götterdämmerung Christa Ludwig is Waltraute, Anthony Raffel is Gunther, and Hanna Lisowska is Gutrune.]

Morris:   Yes.  It’s gotten to the point of just the nagging and the hen-pecking, but it’s not animosity which is really that obvious in Die Walküre.  Speaking about Giovanni, I get so annoyed with these directors who try to twist everything around and try and say Giovanni is actually gay, or that he actually hates women.  After all, he never succeeds with a woman once we see him in the opera.  The opera is a twenty-four-hour period, and anybody can hit a slump.  [Both laugh]  There’s much more to Don Giovanni’s character than just seducing women.  That’s simply one aspect of it.

BD:   With that huge catalogue, I wouldn’t think he’d have time for much else.

Morris:   Yes, but he’s the type of person who’s always in control.  He’ll tell lies here and there, and gets people running around after the wrong people.  Life is all fun and games for him.  It’s the wine, women, and song, not just the women.  He enjoys every aspect of life.  He’s a real hedonist.  He enjoys swordplay, and masquerading in disguises.  Of course it’s all in the pursuit of women, but it’s all these things that make his character.  It’s not just not getting into the sack with women, but that is a driving force.  The chase is probably ninety percent of it, and then ten percent is the actual conquest.

BD:   Is Giovanni good in bed?

Morris:   I would like to think so!  [Laughs]  But when Donna Anna is saying to Don Ottavio that she was fooled when Giovanni was masquerading as Ottavio, and came to her room that night, we never really know how far they got.  She says that at a certain point she realized it wasn’t him.  One wonders at what point was it that she realized that it wasn’t Don Ottavio.

BD:   When you get out on stage in any of these roles, are you portraying the character or do you actually become that character?

Morris:   I portray the character.   I’ve worked with some people who sort of become the character, and that’s scary.  Without mentioning any names, because they’re very well thought of, a couple of people do come to mind who, when you put a sword or a knife in their hand, they really do become the character.

BD:   Are you ever afraid for your life?

Morris:   Yes.  In fact I was in a sword fight with one of them in Carmen, where he let out after me with this sword, and my sword broke in half.  I had maybe three inches up from the hilt, and he was still coming after me, and banging away at me.  I came off with cuts and scrapes.  He’s a scary kind of a guy.  There are people like that, and I don’t really think that’s acting.  It’s pure schizophrenia, these characters and yourself.  I’d rather act my way through it.

BD:   Are there any characters that you do, or would likely do, that are perhaps a little too close to the real James Morris?

Morris:   No, I don’t think so.  Most of the characters I’ve played are really mean guys, so no, I don’t think so.
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BD:   You sing mostly in large houses.  Have you also sung in a few small houses?
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Morris:   Sure, though not in Europe.  Most of the places I’ve sung in Europe are the major houses, but in the beginnings of my career I was singing around the regional companies in the States.

BD:   Did you adjust your technique for the size of the house?

Morris:   You have to, but it’s not only the size of the house.  It’s the acoustics of any given house.  You can have two houses the same size, and one can have great acoustics and the other can be ghastly.  Then there are other houses with dead spots on the stage.  You very quickly find out where those are, and stay away from them.  [Laughs]

BD:   Do you sing the same when you make a recording as you do on the stage?  [Vis-ä-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Deborah Voigt, Paul Groves, and Jane Klaviter.]

Morris:   [Thinks a moment]  You can do things on recordings that you can’t do on the stage.  You can afford to be a little more artistic as far as singing very softly, and doing things with the phrasing because the microphone is six inches away from your mouth.  On the stage you have to project even something very soft, so piano [soft] from the stage wouldn’t be the same kind of piano that you would do on a recording.  Another thing I found is that I’ve never really been happy with the way my voice records.  I know everybody says the same thing, that they can’t stand listening to their recordings, but it’s a fact that a large voice records differently than a smaller voice, and I have a large voice.  A smaller voice actually is much better for recording purposes because it zeros in on the microphone.  The voice starts out wide, and then comes to a point within a few feet, whereas a larger voice, a wider voice, starts much wider and it takes maybe twenty or thirty feet before it focuses.

BD:   Then should you stay farther away from the microphone?

Morris:   Yes.  I’ve actually found that a lot of times my voice sounds a lot better when I back away from the microphone.  But there is a limit because you also have to have a certain presence on the microphone, and when you’re too far away from it, you lose the presence.  So it’s difficult, and it’s up to the engineers, and the people controlling all the knobs and buttons.  I also have found that my voice actually records better in soft passages than it does in the loud sections.  It seems like when the mike hears a loud sound, it cuts the sound in half somehow.  I don’t know the technical term for it...

BD:   Then do you instinctively take a couple of steps back?

Morris:   Yes, as much as I can.  You play around with it.  You listen to play-backs, and try something different.  Then there are other people who literally pick the microphone up and pull it right into their face.  It’s an inch away from their mouth.  So every voice is different.

BD:   Are you pleased with your voice as it is now?

Morris:   Yes.  It’s an ever-changing thing, and everybody goes through tough periods, but I’m happy with it.  However, it’s what the other people think that determines whether or not you get hired.  But yes, I’m happy with it.

BD:   Do you ever feel you’re a slave to the voice?

Morris:   Oh absolutely!  There are certain things you can and can’t do, and routines that you have to follow, not only on the day of performance but during the whole rehearsal period.  When I was in school, and I used to go to football games, and scream and yell, and then I’d come away hoarse.  You can’t do things like that.  You must always try to stay healthy.  People who work in an office can get a cold and still go to work.  When we get a cold, we don’t get paid.

BD:   You have to be very careful.  As a singer, are you part-athlete?

Morris:   When I was in school, I played sports like lacrosse, but singing uses a whole different set of muscles.  That’s what I like about this business.  In school I was never all that great.  I didn’t have the patience to sit down and do bookwork, but I liked being on my feet and doing things physically, and that’s what singing is.  We are athletes.  Everything is different from your football and baseball players, but it is an athletic-type of profession.
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BD:   Earlier you mentioned a movie.  Should we try to get the movie audience into the opera house?
  
Morris:   Yes, and this is one of the things that surtitles are accomplishing.  It’s like going to a foreign film with the subtitles.  In Europe, opera is an every-day occurrence.  People go to the opera like we go to the movies here.  For a long time, opera was thought of in the United States as just something for the elite.  You had to dress-up in your tails or Tuxedos and your gowns, and that’s the way you went to the opera.  I’m glad to see the attitudes are changing.  At the Met, you see people in jeans from time to time, but I also would like to keep a certain amount of glamor in the business.  However, I am glad to see that opera is becoming more widely accepted in more and more towns now.  Smaller cities have their own opera companies, which is very important.

BD:   Is opera for everyone?  [Vis-ä-vis the recording shown at left, see my interview with Wendy White.]

Morris:   Absolutely, and there are so many different types of opera.  If you don’t like classical-type things, there are the verismo [realistic] operas, which are good blood-and-guts every-day life.  They involve everyday people, not gods and goddesses, or weird antique Baroque and Classical settings.  There are so many different styles and different types of productions.  Most people who say they hate opera have never given it a chance.  They’ve never been to an opera, or if they did go, maybe they went once and had a bad experience.  There are lots of operas I go to and hate them.  I leave half-way through, or come out and say that I will never go and see that one again!  It’s the same thing with movies.  You go to good movies, you go to bad movies, so people need to give opera more than one shot.

BD:   Does opera work on the big screen, or on the small TV screen?

Morris:   Yes, absolutely.  There are some operas that are more designed towards a big house, such as the Grand Operas, but then there are chamber operas and smaller pieces.  There are operas that you would do at New York City Opera that you wouldn’t do at the Met, and vice-versa, and then there are some that play well in both houses.

BD:   But would they translate well to a movie screen, or a TV screen?

Morris:   It’s been done successfully, and it’s been done unsuccessfully.  [Both laugh]  There are times when it’s much nicer to see an actual staged performance of an opera filmed, like we do for television broadcasts.  Then there are other times when the movie of an opera comes out, where a sound track is recorded ahead of time, and the characters are lip-synching to the music.  That’s interesting in its own way, because you can do more with it visually and scenic-wise, but I get very annoyed watching people lip-synch.  They go for a high note, and there’s not one bead of perspiration on their forehead, or not one vein standing out.  But again, it’s up to the individual, and what each person likes.

BD:   If they asked you to make a film, and not just a live-on-film production of some opera, would you do it?

Morris:   Yes, in a New York minute!

BD:   Would you be more interested in it, for instance, if Spielberg was involved?

Morris:   This has been a dream of mine ever since I started singing Wotan.  When you read Wagner’s stage directions in the score, you wonder how the hell they are going to do this.  There is a limit to what you can do on the stage, but I’ve often thought somebody like Spielberg cold do a Ring on film.  He could have the actual flying horses and everything with all the special effects that are available now.  I just took a tour through George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, and Industrial Light & Magic, outside of San Francisco where they do all these special effects for the movies.  It’s amazing all the computer-generated things now, and the Ring cycle would lend itself so well to something like that.  

BD:   Let me turn that question on its head.  Are the people who are used to seeing Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader going to be put off by the primitive mechanics of the stage when they come to see you as Wotan?

Morris:   No.  I think people realize that it’s two different media.  You can’t have everything on stage that you could have in the movies, but in the movies you don’t have the presence of the live moment that you have in the theater.  You go to the theater to experience something in the moment.  Otherwise you would buy a record and just listen to it over and over again.

BD:   You like the idea of Spielberg doing the Ring.  Would you like the idea of Spielberg doing Tosca?
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Morris:   Sure, why not?  You bring a cinematographer into these things, and sometimes they have great eyes, but it only works as long as he has a background in opera and knows about opera.  I’ve worked with the directors who have been famous for doing things in movies, and they don’t know one note of music.  They start trying to direct it like they’re directing a play.  They work right from the libretto without any inkling of how much time it takes to sing this line, or how much time there is between this line and the next line, because of the music that’s involved.  But there’s no reason why a cinematographer can’t be a great opera director as long as he knows the music.  Franco Zeffirelli is a prime example.  He’s one of the greatest movie makers, and he’s also a wonderful opera director.
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BD:   Is singing fun?

Morris:   [Sounding a bit doubtful]  Yes...  There are times when it’s a job, and you pick up a paycheck, but for the most part, I would say ninety percent of the time, it’s fun.  Sometimes a rehearsal is a drag, but if you’re in shape, and if you’re healthy, and if you’re not battling an illness, and if you’re feeling well, then it’s fun for sure.

BD:   Do you always get enough rehearsal?  [Vis-à-vis the DVD shown at right, see my interviews with Karita Mattila, and Thomas Allen.]

Morris:   Not always, and sometimes it’s too much.  For the Ring that I did in Munich, we had six months of rehearsal, and that was too much.  A lot of directors nowadays feel their worth is decided by their rung on the ladder, and by how many weeks of rehearsal they’re given.  If so-and-so gets six weeks, then the next director needs eight weeks, and then they hear that so-and-so gets eight, then he must insist on nine.  It gets to be too much.  Years ago, a director friend of mine said you can stage any opera in ten days, and for the most part I think he can, as long as the groundwork has been done, and the technical and stage things have been done ahead of time... but there are limits to that, too.  For instance, here with the Ring cycle in Chicago, we have about four or five weeks rehearsal for each opera, but they work in the summer beforehand on the stage with the set and the lighting, and a lot of stage effects that are going to happen... although quite a lot of which is changed when we actually get on stage and do it [laughs].  But at least they’ve done that background work ahead of time, so we don’t have to start from square one.  Also, it’s best when you get a cast together who know their parts, and have done them before, and have a director who can communicate well with the artists.  You get a lot of directors who waste time.  They don’t really know what they want, and they tend to go through things five, six, seven, eight, nine times, and continue to try it this way or that way.  A director should know basically what he wants to begin with, but the same thing doesn’t always work for every artist.  Every artist is different, and what may look good with one person doing it, may look totally terrible with another person doing it.  So you have to adapt.

BD:   They should have to have an idea, but be flexible?

Morris:   Exactly, and be able to work with the artists.  We’re the ones that have to be up there and convey the ideas to the audience.  Some directors are very open, and these are the ones that are secure in themselves.  I find the ones that are dictatorial and insist theirs is the way it has to be, are the ones that are insecure.

BD:   They have to control every line, and every gesture?

Morris:   Yes.

BD:   How is the opera house here in Chicago to sing in?

Morris:   It’s a very interesting house.  There are a few dead spots on the stage, and there are a few dead spots in the audience, too.  It depends on where you sit.  But I’m having a great time.  I love it.  In the Tosca production I did, I found a couple of live spots and a couple of dead spots on the stage.  But your set makes a big difference.

BD:   Do you try to position yourself in front of a big solid back that helps to focus the voice?

Morris:   Right, [laughs] whenever possible.

BD:   You’re singing the first three Ring operas.  Will you be in Götterdämmerung?  Do you sing Gunther?

Morris:   No.  I’m waiting for a director to bring Wotan in to sit there with the ravens on his shoulders.  That’s how he’s described, and pay me half the fee.

BD:   Would you do it, or would that be a waste?

Morris:   I did the Lehnhoff production in San Francisco and in Munich.  They were two different productions, but he directed both of them, and he had Loge appear at the end.  They brought back the guy who sang Loge in Das Rheingold just to stand on stage for thirty seconds at the end of Götterdämmerung in his costume, and paid him half a fee for it.  They did it once or twice, and then they wised-up and just got a super to do it.  [Both laugh]  But no, I don’t think I would take my time to do that because there are more interesting things to do.

BD:   Thank you for being an opera singer, and for the conversation today.

Morris:   Thank you!  It’s a pleasure to be here.  Thanks for inviting me.  I hope I continue to be an opera singer for a few years yet.
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See my interviews with Samuel Ramey, and Terry Cook



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See my interviews with Renée Fleming, Josephine Barstow, and John Pritchard
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See my interviews with Jerry Hadley
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See my interviews with George Manahan, Stafford Dean, Ann Murray, Regina Resnik, and Anthony Rolfe Johnsoon
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See my interviews with Francisco Araiza, and José van Dam

James Morris with Lyric Opera of Chicago


1979  Simon Boccanegra (Fiesco) with Milnes, Shade, Cossutta, Stone, Toliver; Bartoletti, Frisell, Pizzi

1980  Don Giovanni (Giovanni) with Tomowa-Sintow, Neblett, Dean, Winkler, Buchanan, Bogart, Macurdy; Pritchard, Ponnelle

1992-93  Rheingold (Wotan) with Troyanos, Wlaschiha, McCauley, Maultsby, Petersen, Terfel, Hölle, Ryhänen; Mehta, Everding, Conklin

1993-94  Tosca (Scarpia) with Byrne, Jóhannsson, Woodley, P. Kraus; Bartoletti, Galati, Walton
                Walküre (Wotan) with Marton, Kiberg, Jerusalem, Lipovšek, Hölle; Mehta, Everding, Conklin

1994-95  Siegfried (Wanderer) with Jerusalem/Schmidt, Clark, Marton/Eaglen, Wlaschiha, Maultsby, Halfvarson; Mehta, Everding, Conklin

1995-96  Don Giovanni (Giovanni) with Orgonasova, Vaness, Terfel/Held, Lopardo, Mentzer/Rost, Scaltritti, Stabell; Kreizberg, Ponnelle
                *Rheingold (Wotan) with Lipovšek, Wlaschiha, Clark, Maultsby, Petersen, Held, Salminen, Stabell; Mehta, Everding, Conklin
                *Walküre (Wotan) with Marton/Eaglen, Kiberg, Elming/Anderson, Lipovšek, Salminen; Mehta, Everding, Conklin
                *Siegfried (Wanderer) with same cast as above without Schmidt

2000-01  Flying Dutchman (Dutchman) with Malfitano, Hawlata, Begley, Gorton, Wottrich; Davis, Lehnhoff

2002-03  Walküre (Wotan) with Eaglen, Voigt, Studebaker/Sanders, Lipovšek, Ens; Davis, Everding, Conklin

2003-04  Siegfried (Wanderer) with Treleaven/Lundberg, Cangelosi, Eaglen, Bryjak, Grove, Aceto; Davis, Everding, Conklin

2004-05  Rheingold (Wotan) with Diadkova, Bryjak, Bottone, Grove, Petersen, Rutherford, Silvestrelli, Aceto; Davis, Everding, Conklin
                **Rheingold (Wotan) with same principals as above
                **Walküre (Wotan) with Eaglen, DeYoung, Domingo, Diadkova, Halfvarson; Davis, Everding, Conklin
                **Siegfried (Wanderer) with same cast as above without Lundberg
                Fiftieth Anniversary Gala Concert

2007-08, 2009-10, 2011-12  Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park Concerts

2009-10  Tosca (Scarpia) with Voigt, Galouzine, Irvin, Travis; Davis, Zeffirelli

2010-11  Mikado (Mikado) with Churchman, Davies, Blythe, Spence, P. Kraus; Davis, Griffin

2011-12  Tales of Hoffmann (Coppélius/Dappertutto/Lindorf/Dr. Miracle) with Polenzani, Christy, Cambridge,Wall, Fons, Rosel, Cangelosi; Villaume, Joël

2012-13  Meistersinger (Hans Sachs) with Majeski, Botha, Skovhus, Ivashchenko, Barton, Portillo, Silvestrelli; Davis, McVicar

[* and ** indicate full Ring cycles]


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James Morris with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Chorus Master Margaret Hillis

November, 1977  Requiem [Mozart]  with Costanza Cuccaro, Claudine Carlson, Vinson Cole; Carlo Maria Giulini

November, 1981  Creation [Haydn] (Raphael) with Norma Burrowes, Rüdiger Wohlers, Sylvia Greenberg, Siegmund Nimsgern; Sir Georg Solti

July, 1991  Oedipus Rex [Stravinsky] (Créon & Messenger) with Philip Langridge, Florence Quivar, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Donald Kaasch; James Levine


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See my interview with Janine Reiss





© 1993 Bruce Duffie

This conversation was recorded in Chicago on November 19, 1993.  Portions were broadcast on WNIB the following year to promote the full Ring cycle.  This transcription was made in 2025, and posted on this website at that time.  My thanks to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here.  To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

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Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001.  His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests.  He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago.  You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.