One of the great opera singers has died.
Baritone Cornell Macneil was 88.
Born in Minneapolis, he trained as a machinist before winning a scholarship to the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut.
Opera News published this wonderful profile in 2007.
Cornell Macneil sang primarily at the Metropolitan Opera.
Rigoletto was the role he sang most frequently at the Met, 104 times.
He sang Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca 92 times at the Met, including his final performance there in December 1987. Here he is in 1987. Magnificent!!
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