Carlos Alexander

Carlos Alexander (October 15, 1915 – September 4, 1991) was a dramatic baritone, stage director of opera, and Broadway performer born in Utica, New York. He built a career as a singing-actor with particular distinction in German repertoire, earning the title of Kammersänger, and worked with opera companies across Latin America, North America, and Europe.

Alexander launched his singing career in 1940 with a debut in Scranton, Pennsylvania, taking the role of the Conte di Luna in Verdi's Il trovatore. Two years later he appeared on Broadway in the musical Once Over Lightly in 1942. By 1947 he had joined the New York City Opera, where he sang the Major-Domo in Ariadne auf Naxos and the title role of Jochanaan in Salome. That same year his directorial work began to take shape, with a production of Les contes d'Hoffmann for New Orleans and an earlier staging of Die Fledermaus for the Pittsburgh Opera in 1944.

His operatic repertoire was broad, encompassing works by Wagner, Strauss, Berg, Dallapiccola, Schoenberg, and Orff. Among the roles he performed were Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Amfortas in Parsifal, Jochanaan in Salome, and parts in Lulu, Moses und Aron, Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, and Tristan und Isolde. At the Vienna Staatsoper, Alexander appeared in a wide range of productions between 1959 and 1973, including Arabella in 1959 and 1965, Salome and Prince Igor in 1959 and 1960 respectively, Götterdämmerung as Gunther in 1960, Lohengrin as Friedrich von Telramund in 1967, Die Zauberflöte as the Sprecher in 1967, Prometheus in the title role in 1969, and Penderecki's Die Teufel von Loudon as Urbain Grandier in 1973.

One of the landmarks of his concert career was a 1950 performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, with George London and Eugene Conley among the fellow soloists. The performance was recorded. His discography also includes a 1961 studio recording of Orff's Antigonae, in which he portrayed Kreon opposite Inge Borkh. In 1968 he appeared as Dr. Schön in a Stuttgart film of Wieland Wagner's production of Lulu, alongside Anja Silja in the title role.

Alexander's association with Bayreuth brought him international recognition when he sang Sixtus Beckmesser in Wieland Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger in 1963 and 1964. Wieland Wagner remarked of Alexander's portrayal of Wotan that no vocal giant had moved him as deeply in Wotan's Farewell. As a director, Alexander mounted productions in Toronto, Stuttgart, Chicago, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Santa Fe, with stagings that included Fidelio, The Rape of Lucretia, Madama Butterfly, Salome, and Der fliegende Holländer.