George Britton (musician)
Encyclopedia
George Britton was an American singer, actor, and guitarist. A classical bass-baritone
, he had an active performing career in opera
s, concerts, and musical
s during the 1930s through the 1960s. As a stage performer he is best known for succeeding Ezio Pinza
in the role of Emile de Becque in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
's South Pacific
. He portrayed the role for two years opposite Martha Wright
as Nellie Forbush.
Britton began performing concerts of folk music in the 1950s, accompanying himself on the guitar. In 1957 he cofounded the Philadelphia Folksong Society
and the Philadelphia Folk Festival
in 1962. In the 1960s his career moved primarily into performing folk music. He also taught guitar and voice at his studio, the George Britton Folk Studio.
, to parents of Irish
and Pennsylvania Dutch
decent. He studied at Columbia University
where he graduated with a music degree in 1932. He notably was awarded the Gold King's Crowns Award by the University his senior year. He pursued graduate studies in voice at the Juilliard School
, earning a masters degree in 1936. While at Juilliard he notably appeared in the New York premiere of Richard Strauss
's Ariadne auf Naxos
and portrayed Etienne in the world premiere of Robert Russell Bennett
's Maria Malibran opposite Helen Marshall in the title role and Risë Stevens
as Cornelia.
Note: This page seems to be confusing two different people, George Britton the folk singer and George Britton the musical theater singer. George Britton the folk singer was born October 3, 1915 in Reading, PA to Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch parents and died February 12, 2010. He did not attend Columbia University nor Juilliard. Although he was involved with opera and musical theatre very early in his career, his main focus and contribution was as a folk singer and teacher of folk guitar, at which he was very successful, teaching literally thousands of students and touring nationally from the 1940s through the 1980s. All the facts pertaining to his activities with the Philadelphia Folk Song Society and Folk Festival are true. He was also involved in founding the Philadelphia Society for the Classic Guitar and was one of the original partners in The Main Point Coffeehouse in Bryn Mawr, one of Philadelphia's premier folk music venues. He married Charlotte Klemp with whom he had four children Ellen, Wendy, Kerry and Timothy, all of whom are musicians as well.
in the summer of 1934. He was a regular performer with that company for over the next decade. In 1936 he made his first appearance at the Worcester Festival in a concert of opera arias with soprano Helen Jepson
and conductor Albert Stoessel
. He returned to that festival several times during the late 1930s and 1940s.
In 1941 Britton made his Carnegie Hall
debut portraying the title role in Giacomo Puccini
's Gianni Schicchi
with the National Orchestral Association under the baton of Leon Barzin
. He sang several roles with the short-lived New Opera Company (NOC) in Manhattan
in the early 1940s, notably portraying Prince Tomsky opposite Martha Lipton
in her professional opera debut as Pauline in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades
in October 1941. He also starred in the world premiere of Walter Damrosch's The Opera Cloak with the NOC in November 1942. In the summer of 1942 he made his first appearance at the Paper Mill Playhouse
in Franz Schubert
's Blossom Time. In 1945 he presented the world premiere of Miriam Gideon
's art song "The Hound of Heaven" at the International Society for Contemporary Music
convention.
Britton made one of his earliest forays into musical theatre in 1943, appearing in the Blackfriars Repertory Theatre's original musical, Moment Musical. The following year he returned to the Paper Mill Playhouse (PMP) to star in a production of Sigmund Romberg
's The Student Prince
. He was a regular performer at the PMP up through 1950. In 1946 he portrayed Huckleberry Haines in Jerome Kern
's Roberta
at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
and starred in Victor Herbert
's The Fortune Teller
at the Curran Theatre
in San Francisco. He made his Broadway
debut at the New Century Theatre
in September 1946 as Sandor in Robert Wright
and George Forrest
's Gypsy Lady. In 1948 he performed on the cast recording of Arthur Schwartz
and Howard Dietz
's musical review Inside U.S.A.
. The recording was made before the show premiered on Broadway, and Britton did not actually appear in the stage production.
Britton continued to perform in operas, musicals, and concerts throughout the United States during the late 1940s through the early 1960s. In 1950 he portrayed Don Andrès de Ribeira in Jacques Offenbach
's La Périchole
at New York's Town Hall
under the direction of Maggie Teyte
. That same year he portrayed the four villains in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann for NBC Opera Theatre
and the role of Massakroff in Oscar Straus
's The Chocolate Soldier
on NBC's Musical Comedy Time. He made several appearances with Philadelphia's Co-Opera Company in the early 1950s, including Mr Gobineau in Gian Carlo Menotti
's The Medium
. In January 1952 he took over the role of Emile de Becque in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
's South Pacific
, staying with the production until it closed on Jan 16, 1954. In 1953 he recorded selections from Anything Goes
and Kiss Me Kate
with Lisa Kirk
and Helena Bliss
for RCA Records
. In 1961 he appeared in the United States premiere of Roland Fiore's Linda at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
.
Although initially a singer by profession, Britton was also a talented guitarist. In the early 1950s he became seriously interested in the music of his mother's Pennsylvania Dutch
heritage. He began performing concerts of these folk pieces with just his voice and a guitar. In 1955 he recorded his only solo album, Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Songs, with Folkways Records
. The recording is now a part of the collection at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. After leaving South Pacific in 1954 his performance career became increasingly more involved with performing folk music and by the mid 1960s he had left classical music entirely. For many years he was heavily involved with the Philadelphia Folk Festival
, which he helped establish in 1962.
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
, he had an active performing career in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, concerts, and musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
s during the 1930s through the 1960s. As a stage performer he is best known for succeeding Ezio Pinza
Ezio Pinza
Ezio Pinza was an Italian basso opera singer with a rich, smooth and sonorous voice. He spent 22 seasons at New York's Metropolitan Opera, appearing in more than 750 performances of 50 operas...
in the role of Emile de Becque in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
. He portrayed the role for two years opposite Martha Wright
Martha Wright (actress)
Martha Wright is a retired American actress best known for her performances on Broadway and on television.Beginning to sing in radio, musical theatre and opera in her native Seattle as a teenager, Wright moved to New York City and debuted on Broadway by age 21, where she soon had a major success...
as Nellie Forbush.
Britton began performing concerts of folk music in the 1950s, accompanying himself on the guitar. In 1957 he cofounded the Philadelphia Folksong Society
Philadelphia Folksong Society
Philadelphia Folksong Society is a not for profit educational organization dedicated to preserving the past, promoting the present and securing the future of folk music and related forms of expression through education, presentation and participation....
and the Philadelphia Folk Festival
Philadelphia Folk Festival
The Philadelphia Folk Festival is an annual folk music festival near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Begun in 1962, the four-day festival is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres...
in 1962. In the 1960s his career moved primarily into performing folk music. He also taught guitar and voice at his studio, the George Britton Folk Studio.
Early life and education
Britton was born in Reading, PennsylvaniaReading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
, to parents of Irish
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
and Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
decent. He studied at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
where he graduated with a music degree in 1932. He notably was awarded the Gold King's Crowns Award by the University his senior year. He pursued graduate studies in voice at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, earning a masters degree in 1936. While at Juilliard he notably appeared in the New York premiere of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
and portrayed Etienne in the world premiere of Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett
Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers. In 1957 and 2008, Bennett received Tony Awards...
's Maria Malibran opposite Helen Marshall in the title role and Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...
as Cornelia.
Note: This page seems to be confusing two different people, George Britton the folk singer and George Britton the musical theater singer. George Britton the folk singer was born October 3, 1915 in Reading, PA to Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch parents and died February 12, 2010. He did not attend Columbia University nor Juilliard. Although he was involved with opera and musical theatre very early in his career, his main focus and contribution was as a folk singer and teacher of folk guitar, at which he was very successful, teaching literally thousands of students and touring nationally from the 1940s through the 1980s. All the facts pertaining to his activities with the Philadelphia Folk Song Society and Folk Festival are true. He was also involved in founding the Philadelphia Society for the Classic Guitar and was one of the original partners in The Main Point Coffeehouse in Bryn Mawr, one of Philadelphia's premier folk music venues. He married Charlotte Klemp with whom he had four children Ellen, Wendy, Kerry and Timothy, all of whom are musicians as well.
Career
Britton made his professional opera debut at the Chautauqua OperaChautauqua Opera
The Chautauqua Opera is the resident summer opera company of the Chautauqua Institution. It is the oldest continuously active summer opera company in the U.S, having been founded in 1929, and it has produced several operas during the Institution's nine-week summer season every year since...
in the summer of 1934. He was a regular performer with that company for over the next decade. In 1936 he made his first appearance at the Worcester Festival in a concert of opera arias with soprano Helen Jepson
Helen Jepson
Helen Jepson was an American lyric soprano noted for being a "stunning blond beauty" as well as for her voice....
and conductor Albert Stoessel
Albert Stoessel
Albert Frederic Stoessel was an American composer, violinist and conductor.He was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1894. He studied music at the Berlin Hochschule as a pupil of Emanuel Wirth and Willy Hess...
. He returned to that festival several times during the late 1930s and 1940s.
In 1941 Britton made his Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
debut portraying the title role in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
with the National Orchestral Association under the baton of Leon Barzin
Leon Barzin
Léon Eugene Barzin was a Belgian-born American conductor and founder of the National Orchestral Association , the oldest surviving training orchestra in the United States...
. He sang several roles with the short-lived New Opera Company (NOC) in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in the early 1940s, notably portraying Prince Tomsky opposite Martha Lipton
Martha Lipton
Martha Lipton was an American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Biography:Lipton was born in New York City. She won a scholarship to the Juilliard School and made her debut as Pauline in Tchaikovsky's opera The Queen of Spades for the New Opera Company in Manhattan in 1941...
in her professional opera debut as Pauline in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
in October 1941. He also starred in the world premiere of Walter Damrosch's The Opera Cloak with the NOC in November 1942. In the summer of 1942 he made his first appearance at the Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse
Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theatre with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey, less than 25 miles from Manhattan. Due to its location, it can draw from the pool of actors who live in New York City. Its location, as well as its focus on producing large-scale shows, makes...
in Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Blossom Time. In 1945 he presented the world premiere of Miriam Gideon
Miriam Gideon
Miriam Gideon was an American composer.-Life:She studied organ with her uncle Henry Gideon and piano with Felix Fox. She also studied with Martin Bernstein, Marion Bauer, Charles Haubiel, and Jacques Pillois...
's art song "The Hound of Heaven" at the International Society for Contemporary Music
International Society for Contemporary Music
The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.ISCM was established in 1922, in Salzburg. Its core activity is the World Music Days Festival, held every year at a different location. The festival includes cutting edge productions...
convention.
Britton made one of his earliest forays into musical theatre in 1943, appearing in the Blackfriars Repertory Theatre's original musical, Moment Musical. The following year he returned to the Paper Mill Playhouse (PMP) to star in a production of Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
's The Student Prince
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
. He was a regular performer at the PMP up through 1950. In 1946 he portrayed Huckleberry Haines in Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
's Roberta
Roberta
Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...
at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
Los Angeles Civic Light Opera
The Los Angeles Civic Light Opera was an American theatre/opera company in Los Angeles, California. Founded under the motto "Light Opera in the Grand Opera manner" in 1938 by impresario Edwin Lester, the organization presented fifty seasons of theatre before closing due to financial reasons in...
and starred in Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
's The Fortune Teller
The Fortune Teller (operetta)
The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
at the Curran Theatre
Curran Theatre
The Curran Theatre is located in San Francisco and was named by its first owner, Homer Curran. The theatre is currently owned by Carole Shorenstein Hays and is operated by SHN - Overview :...
in San Francisco. He made his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut at the New Century Theatre
New Century Theatre
The New Century Theatre was a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 932 Seventh Avenue at West 58th Street in midtown Manhattan.The house, which seated 1700, was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp for the Shuberts, who originally named it Jolson's 59th Street Theatre after Al Jolson, who...
in September 1946 as Sandor in Robert Wright
Robert Wright (writer)
Robert [Craig] Wright was an American composer-lyricist for Hollywood and the musical theatre best known for the Broadway musical and musical film Kismet, for which he and his professional partner George Forrest adapted themes by Alexander Borodin and added lyrics...
and George Forrest
George Forrest (author)
George Forrest was a writer of music and lyrics for musical theatre best known for the show Kismet, adapted from the works of Alexander Borodin.-Biography:...
's Gypsy Lady. In 1948 he performed on the cast recording of Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz
Arthur Schwartz was an American composer and film producer.Schwartz supported his legal studies at New York University and postgraduate studies at Columbia University by playing piano before concentrating his talents on vaudeville, Broadway theatre and Hollywood.Among his Broadway musicals are The...
and Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist.-Biography:Dietz was born in New York City and studied journalism at Columbia University...
's musical review Inside U.S.A.
Inside U.S.A.
Inside U.S.A. was a musical revue by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz and was loosely based on the book Inside U.S.A. by John Gunther. Sketches were written by Arnold M. Auerbach, Moss Hart, and Arnold B...
. The recording was made before the show premiered on Broadway, and Britton did not actually appear in the stage production.
Britton continued to perform in operas, musicals, and concerts throughout the United States during the late 1940s through the early 1960s. In 1950 he portrayed Don Andrès de Ribeira in Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's La Périchole
La Périchole
La Périchole is an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote the French-language libretto based on the 1829 one act play Le carrosse du Saint-Sacrement by Prosper Mérimée, which was revived on 13 March 1850 at the Théâtre-Français...
at New York's Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
under the direction of Maggie Teyte
Maggie Teyte
Dame Maggie Teyte DBE was an English operatic soprano and interpreter of French art song.-Early years:Margaret Tate was born in Wolverhampton, England, one of ten children of Jacob James Tate, a successful wine and spirit merchant and proprietor of public houses and later lodgings. Her parents...
. That same year he portrayed the four villains in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann for NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...
and the role of Massakroff in Oscar Straus
Oscar Straus (composer)
Oscar Nathan Straus was a Viennese composer of operettas and film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works...
's The Chocolate Soldier
The Chocolate Soldier
The Chocolate Soldier is an operetta composed in 1908 by Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, Arms and the Man...
on NBC's Musical Comedy Time. He made several appearances with Philadelphia's Co-Opera Company in the early 1950s, including Mr Gobineau in Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...
's The Medium
The Medium
The Medium is a short two-act dramatic opera with words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti. Commissioned by Columbia University, its first performance was there on 8 May 1946. The opera's first professional production was presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Telephone at the Heckscher...
. In January 1952 he took over the role of Emile de Becque in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
, staying with the production until it closed on Jan 16, 1954. In 1953 he recorded selections from Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
and Kiss Me Kate
Kiss Me, Kate
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.Kiss...
with Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk
Lisa Kirk was an American actress and singer noted for her comic talents and rich contralto .-Career:...
and Helena Bliss
Helena Bliss
Helena Bliss is a retired American actress and singer. A talented soprano, she actively performed in musicals, operettas, and operas in the United States, both on stage and on television and radio, from the 1930s through the 1950s...
for RCA Records
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
. In 1961 he appeared in the United States premiere of Roland Fiore's Linda at the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius...
.
Although initially a singer by profession, Britton was also a talented guitarist. In the early 1950s he became seriously interested in the music of his mother's Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from southwestern Germany and Switzerland who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries...
heritage. He began performing concerts of these folk pieces with just his voice and a guitar. In 1955 he recorded his only solo album, Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Songs, with Folkways Records
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
. The recording is now a part of the collection at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. After leaving South Pacific in 1954 his performance career became increasingly more involved with performing folk music and by the mid 1960s he had left classical music entirely. For many years he was heavily involved with the Philadelphia Folk Festival
Philadelphia Folk Festival
The Philadelphia Folk Festival is an annual folk music festival near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Begun in 1962, the four-day festival is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres...
, which he helped establish in 1962.