Ernest McChesney

Ernest McChesney (July 22, 1912 – July 25, 1991) was an American tenor whose career encompassed Broadway musicals, opera, concert performances, and radio broadcasts from the late 1920s through the early 1960s. He subsequently spent many years as a voice teacher at the Manhattan School of Music.

McChesney entered the professional stage as a teenager, appearing in the ensemble of the original Broadway production of My Maryland in 1927, followed by The New Moon in 1928. He took on a small supporting role in Princess Charming in 1930, and the following year earned a featured position among the performers in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. His professional opera debut came in July 1933 when he sang the role of Danillo in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow with the Central City Opera.

Throughout the 1930s McChesney balanced stage and concert work with formal academic study. He sang roles with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera in 1934 and 1935, and made numerous radio appearances during the decade, including the world premiere of Louis Gruenberg's Green Mansions on CBS radio on October 17, 1937, in which he portrayed Abel. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Syracuse University in 1938, having pursued his studies there while continuing to perform in operas, operettas, and concerts across the United States.

The early 1940s brought further professional milestones. In 1940 McChesney served as tenor soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Minneapolis Symphony under conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. He made his New York City recital debut at Town Hall in 1941, and in 1942 received a master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan. That same year he returned to Broadway to portray Eisenstein in Rosalinda, an adaptation of Die Fledermaus. He was also a repeat performer with New York City's New Opera Company during this period. In 1943 he sang as tenor soloist in Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Bethlehem Bach Festival.

In 1946 McChesney appeared as tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The following year he made his final Broadway appearance, portraying Major Alexius Apieidoff in a revival of The Chocolate Soldier. In 1949 and 1950 he toured the United States with the Charles L. Wagner Opera Company, singing Canio in Pagliacci, and appeared with the Lyric Theatre in Houston in The New Moon before touring in The Chocolate Soldier with Ann Ayers. In 1951 he performed the B Minor Mass with the Oratorio Society of New York.

McChesney made his debut with the New York City Opera on March 25, 1954, singing Herod in Richard Strauss's Salome alongside Phyllis Curtin in the title role. He remained a principal tenor with the company through 1960, taking on roles that included Eisenstein, Malcolm in Macbeth, and William Marshall in Marc Blitzstein's Regina. In 1956 he portrayed Pandarus in the United States premiere of William Walton's Troilus and Cressida at the San Francisco Opera. In 1959 he created the role of the Director in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author, and his final role with the New York City Opera was the title part in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex in 1960.

Following his retirement from performing in the early 1960s, McChesney joined the voice faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, where he taught for many years. During 1966 and 1967 he taught voice at Yale University, filling in for Jack Litten while Litten was on sabbatical in Germany. His wife, Jean McChesney, née Everly, died in 1974. McChesney died seventeen years later in Ocean City, New Jersey, on July 25, 1991.