Emile Renan

Emile Renan (June 28, 1913 – December 8, 2001) was an American operatic bass-baritone, stage director, and Broadway performer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He studied voice in New York City with Eleanor McLellan and John Daggett Howell, and built a career that spanned operatic performance, Broadway appearances, and eventually teaching and directing.

Renan's longest and most significant professional association was with the New York City Opera, where he appeared in more than thirty-two roles over fifteen years. His connection to the company began at its very founding, when he portrayed the Sacristan in Puccini's Tosca on February 21, 1944 — the NYCO's inaugural production. He became particularly identified with buffo parts and with twentieth-century repertoire. Among his most notable contributions were appearances in world premiere productions: he created the role of Meyer in David Tamkin's The Dybbuk in 1951 and the Army Doctor in Robert Kurka's The Good Soldier Schweik in 1958. He also appeared in the premiere of the revised version of Robert Ward's He Who Gets Slapped in 1959, portraying Baron Regnard. His broader NYCO repertoire included Beckmesser in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the Principál komediantů in The Bartered Bride, and Oscar Hubbard in Regina.

Beyond the NYCO, Renan performed as a guest artist with opera companies across North America, including the American Opera Company, the Baltimore Opera Company, the Opera Company of Boston, the Canadian Opera Company, the Chicago Opera Company, the Houston Grand Opera, the Miami Opera, the NBC Opera Theatre, the New Orleans Opera, the Opéra de Montréal, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Pittsburgh Opera, the San Antonio Grand Opera Festival, and the Vancouver Opera.

His Broadway career ran from 1944 to 1955 and included productions such as Threepenny Opera, Miss Liberty, The Rape of Lucretia, M. Butterfly, and The Pirates of Penzance. After retiring from the stage in the early 1960s, Renan joined the voice faculty at the Juilliard School, where he taught for many years. He also continued working as a stage director, returning to the NYCO in 1965 to direct productions of Carmen and I Pagliacci. Renan died in Englewood, New Jersey on December 8, 2001, at the age of 88.