William Martin was an American classical tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

. Born in Massachusetts, he studied singing with Leveret Merrill, A Sujol, and Florence Holtzman. A graduate of Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, he was for many years a member of the Harvard Glee Club

Harvard Glee Club

The Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, all-male choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the US. The Glee Club is part of the Holden Choruses of Harvard University, which also include the...

. He made his professional opera debut in 1923 in the title role of Jules Massenet

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

's Werther

Werther

Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....

. He was committed to the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

 in Paris from 1925-1929 where he notably sang the role of Philipp in the world premiere of Lucien Chevaillier

Lucien Chevaillier

Lucien Chevaillier was a French composer and pianist. He is best known for his music for piano, particularly his Berceuse pour piano op. 65. His one act opera Le poème du soir premiered successfully at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 13 May 1925. He taught for many years at the Strasbourg...

's Le poème du soir. In 1927 he and Mary McCormic

Mary McCormic

Mary McCormic was an American operatic soprano and a professor of opera at the University of North Texas College of Music ....

 became the first two Americans to appear in leading roles at the Opéra National de Paris, respectively portraying the title role and the role of Marguerite in Charles Gounod

Charles Gounod

Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...

's Faust

Faust (opera)

Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...

. In 1929 he had a major success at the Palais Garnier

Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...

 as the Duke of Mantua in Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's Rigoletto

Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...

. In 1930 he sang Romeo to Grace Moore

Grace Moore

Grace Moore was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped to popularize opera by bringing it to a larger audience.-Early life:...

's Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette

Roméo et Juliette

Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...

at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie

Opéra Royal de Wallonie

The Opéra Royal de Wallonie ' is an opera house in Liège, Belgium, one of four situated in that country.- External links :*...

. Martin is best remembered today for creating the role of Amelia's lover in the world premiere of 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 Amelia Goes to the Ball

Amelia Goes to the Ball

Amelia Goes to the Ball is an opera buffa in one act composed by Gian Carlo Menotti. Menotti also wrote the original Italian libretto. Composed when he was twenty-three, it was Menotti's first mature opera and his first critical success...

on 1 April 1937 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music

Academy of Music (Philadelphia)

The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at Broad and Locust Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1857 and is the oldest opera house in the United States that is still used for its original purpose...

.