Todd Duncan

Robert Todd Duncan, born February 12, 1903, in Danville, Kentucky, was an American baritone, actor, and voice teacher whose career spanned opera, Broadway, concert performance, and recording. The son of John Duncan, a garage owner, and Lettie Cooper Duncan, a music teacher, he pursued formal musical training at Butler University in Indianapolis, earning a bachelor's degree in music, and later completed a master's degree at Columbia University Teachers College. He died on February 28, 1998, in Washington, D.C., survived by his wife, Gladys Jackson Duncan, and their adopted son, Charles, an attorney.

Duncan's professional performing career began in 1934 with a debut in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana at the Mecca Temple in New York, presented by the Aeolian Opera, a Black opera company. The following year, George Gershwin personally selected him to originate the role of Porgy in the premiere production of Porgy and Bess on Broadway in 1935, a role Duncan would go on to perform more than 1,800 times. During the Washington run of the production at the National Theatre in 1936, Duncan led the cast in protesting the theater's segregationist seating policy, stating he would not perform in any venue that restricted ticket purchases based on race. Management ultimately yielded, and the National Theatre hosted its first integrated performance as a result.

In 1938, Duncan appeared in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in C.B. Cochran's musical production The Sun Never Sets, adapted by Pat Wallace and Guy Bolton from stories by Edgar Wallace and featuring original music by Cole Porter. The cast included Adelaide Hall, Leslie Banks, Edna Best, and Stewart Granger, with costumes designed by Elizabeth Haffenden. Among the numbers Duncan performed was "River God." After the London engagement closed, he and Hall toured Britain with the production.

Duncan's Broadway career extended from 1935 to 1949 and included appearances in Cabin in the Sky and Lost in the Stars, in addition to his landmark work in Porgy and Bess. He originated the role of Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars, which opened at the Music Box Theatre on October 30, 1949, and ran for 281 performances before closing on July 1, 1950. For that performance he received the New York Drama Critics' Award.

In 1945, Duncan became the first African American to perform with a major opera company when he sang the role of Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with the New York City Opera, also becoming the first Black performer to appear in an opera alongside an otherwise white cast. That same year he sang the role of Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and performed Songs of Glory, a song cycle composed by Dutch-American director Dirk Foch to texts by Joseph Auslander, who then held the position of United States Poet Laureate.

In 1954, Duncan became the first artist to record "Unchained Melody," a song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret, for the soundtrack of the prison film Unchained, in which he also appeared in a minor role. The song subsequently became one of the most recorded compositions of the twentieth century.

Alongside his performing career, Duncan taught voice at Howard University in Washington, D.C., from 1930 to 1945, while continuing to tour as a concert soloist with pianists William Duncan Allen and George Malloy. Over the course of his concert career he gave more than 2,000 performances across 56 countries. After leaving Howard, he opened a private voice studio and continued to give periodic recitals. Among his notable students was operatic bass Philip Booth, who performed at the Metropolitan Opera for two decades.

Duncan received numerous honors throughout his life, including the George Peabody Medal of Music from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University in 1984, a medal of honor from Haiti, an NAACP award, the Donaldson Award, and honorary doctorates from Valparaiso University and Butler University. In 1978, the Washington Performing Arts Society presented a gala in celebration of his seventy-fifth birthday. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.