Paul Plishka
Encyclopedia
Paul Plishka is a Ukrainian-American
bass opera
singer.
Mr Plishka comes from Old Forge, Pennsylvania
and Paterson, New Jersey; his parents were American-born children of Ukrainian
immigrants. He studied at Montclair State College and with Armen Boyajian (also the pedagogue of Marisa Galvany
and fellow basso Samuel Ramey
), and made his operatic debut with the Paterson Lyric Opera, in 1961.
Plishka made his formal debut with the Metropolitan Opera
as the Monk in La Gioconda, in 1967. He became one of the company's leading basses, and has appeared in many other theatres, including the Teatro alla Scala (debut in La damnation de Faust, 1974).
Plishka continues to perform and is a regular at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In the 2009-10 season, he appeared in Tosca
(as the Sacristan), Il tabarro
(as Talpa), Gianni Schicchi
(as Spinelloccio), La bohème
(as Benoit and Alcindoro), and La traviata
(as Dr Grenvil) at the Met. He remains active at the Met as of the 2011-2012 season and has sung over 1,600 performances with the company, placing him at Number 10 on the Met's official list of most-frequent performers which dates back to the company's inception in 1883 (Plishka is one of three performers still active in the Top 10).
He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron
, an international professional music fraternity.
Paul Plishka's artistry was recognized in 1992 when he received the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and when, several years earlier, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great American Opera Singers in a celebration at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
Plishka's international artistic successes have been dampened by a life filled with personal tragedies.
In 1984, Plishka's younger brother, Dr. Peter Plishka, was found dead in his Bronx apartment with a self-inflicted stab wound. At the time, Dr. Plishka, 33, was chief of children's services at the state-run Children's Psychiatric Center.
In 1991, Plishka's son Jeffrey was accused of the murder and rape of Laura Ronning, a crime of which he was eventually acquitted in 2010.
In 2004, Plishka's first wife, Judith Ann Plishka, Jeffrey's mother, died, according to an obituary in the New York Times. Plishka is currently married to Sharon Thomas, a former resident stage director at the Met.
Another of Plishka's sons, Paul, Jr., also died, according to Pastor Protopresbyter Nestor Kowal of St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Plishka has a third son, Nicolai.
Ukrainian-American
Ukrainian Americans are citizens and permanent residents of the United States who have recently emigrated to the United States and are of Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2006 there were 961,113 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.33% of the American population...
bass 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...
singer.
Mr Plishka comes from Old Forge, Pennsylvania
Old Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Old Forge is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,313 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Old Forge is located at . The borough has a total area of 3.5 square miles which is all land..-History:The history of Old Forge can be traced back to the creation of...
and Paterson, New Jersey; his parents were American-born children of Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
immigrants. He studied at Montclair State College and with Armen Boyajian (also the pedagogue of Marisa Galvany
Marisa Galvany
Marisa Galvany is an American soprano who had an active international career performing in operas and concerts up into the early 2000s. Known for the great intensity of her performances, Galvany particularly excelled in portraying Verdi heroines...
and fellow basso Samuel Ramey
Samuel Ramey
Samuel Edward Ramey is an American operatic bass with a long, distinguished career.During his best years, he was greatly admired for his range and versatility, having possessed a sufficiently accomplished bel canto technique to enable him to sing the music of Handel, Mozart, Rossini, yet power...
), and made his operatic debut with the Paterson Lyric Opera, in 1961.
Plishka made his formal debut with the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
as the Monk in La Gioconda, in 1967. He became one of the company's leading basses, and has appeared in many other theatres, including the Teatro alla Scala (debut in La damnation de Faust, 1974).
Plishka continues to perform and is a regular at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In the 2009-10 season, he appeared in Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
(as the Sacristan), Il tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
(as Talpa), 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...
(as Spinelloccio), La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
(as Benoit and Alcindoro), and La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
(as Dr Grenvil) at the Met. He remains active at the Met as of the 2011-2012 season and has sung over 1,600 performances with the company, placing him at Number 10 on the Met's official list of most-frequent performers which dates back to the company's inception in 1883 (Plishka is one of three performers still active in the Top 10).
He is a National Patron of Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron
Delta Omicron is a co-ed international professional music honors fraternity whose mission is to promote and support excellence in music and musicianship.-History:...
, an international professional music fraternity.
Paul Plishka's artistry was recognized in 1992 when he received the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and when, several years earlier, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great American Opera Singers in a celebration at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
Plishka's international artistic successes have been dampened by a life filled with personal tragedies.
In 1984, Plishka's younger brother, Dr. Peter Plishka, was found dead in his Bronx apartment with a self-inflicted stab wound. At the time, Dr. Plishka, 33, was chief of children's services at the state-run Children's Psychiatric Center.
In 1991, Plishka's son Jeffrey was accused of the murder and rape of Laura Ronning, a crime of which he was eventually acquitted in 2010.
In 2004, Plishka's first wife, Judith Ann Plishka, Jeffrey's mother, died, according to an obituary in the New York Times. Plishka is currently married to Sharon Thomas, a former resident stage director at the Met.
Another of Plishka's sons, Paul, Jr., also died, according to Pastor Protopresbyter Nestor Kowal of St. Michael Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Plishka has a third son, Nicolai.
Abridged discography
- Puccini: Tosca (L.Price, Domingo, Milnes; Mehta, 1972)
- Donizetti: Anna Bolena (Sills, Verrett, Burrows; Rudel, 1972)
- Bellini: I puritani (Sills, Gedda, L.Quilico; Rudel, 1973)
- Bellini: Norma (Sills, Verrett, di Giuseppe; Levine, 1973)
- Gounod: Faust (Caballé, Aragall; Lombard, 1976)
- Massenet: Le Cid (Bumbry, Domingo; Queler, 1976) [live]
- Puccini: Turandot (Caballé, Freni, Carreras; Lombard, 1977)
- Verdi: Otello (Scotto, Domingo, Milnes; Levine, 1978)
- Bellini: Norma (Scotto, Troyanos, Giacomini; Levine, 1979)
- Puccini: La bohème (Scotto, Neblett, Kraus, Milnes; Levine, 1979)
- Verdi: La forza del destino (Freni, Domingo, Zancanaro; Muti, 1986)
- Mussourgsky: Boris Godunov (Vishnevskaya, Raimondi; Rostropovich, 1987)
- Puccini: La bohème (Réaux, Hadley, Hampson; Bernstein, 1988)
- "À Bordeaux" [Verdi/Moussorgsky] (Lombard, 1990)
- Verdi: Luisa Miller (Millo, Quivar, Domingo; Levine, 1991)
- Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Te Kanawa, Upshaw; Levine, 1992)
- "Sings Songs of Ukraine" (Hrynkiv, 1992)
- "Christmas with Paul Plishka" (Erikson, 1995)
- Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress (McNair, Bostridge; Ozawa, c1996)
Abridged videography
- Puccini: La bohème (Scotto, Niska, Pavarotti, Wixell; Levine, Melano, 1977) [live]
- Weill: Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Stratas, Varnay, Cassilly, MacNeil; Levine, Dexter, 1979) [live]
- Verdi: Don Carlos (Scotto, Troyanos, Moldoveanu, Milnes, Hines; Levine, Dexter, 1980) [live]
- Rossini: La cenerentola (von Stade, Araiza; Abbado, Ponnelle, 1981)
- Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (Sutherland, Kraus, Elvíra; Bonynge, Donnell, 1982) [live]
- Berlioz: Les troyens (Norman, Troyanos, Domingo; Levine, Melano, 1983) [live]
- Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (Tomowa-Sintow, Milnes; Levine, Capobianco, 1984) [live]
- Puccini: Turandot (Marton, Domingo; Levine, Zeffirelli, 1987) [live]
- Verdi: Luisa Miller (J.Anderson; Arena, Lassalle, 1988) [live]
- Verdi: Requiem (Sweet, Zajick, Pavarotti; Maazel, 1990) [live]
- Verdi: Falstaff (Freni, Horne; Levine, Zeffirelli/Mills, 1992) [live]
- Verdi: Stiffelio (Sweet, Domingo; Levine, del Monaco, 1993) [live]
External links
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOnTCy9fqJg YouTube: Paul Plishka in an excerpt from Don Carlos, 1980.
- Mr Plishka's official web-site: http://www.georgemartynuk.com/paul-plishka/