Music / Theatre & dance
Frank Porretta
1930–2015 · operatic and musical theater tenor
Detroit-born tenor from a family of surgeons who sang fourteen seasons at New York City Opera and starred in musicals and the film Song of Norway.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Stamford, Connecticut
aged 84- Birth name
- Francis Samuel Porretta II
- Also known as
- Frank Porretta Jr.
- Detroit years
- 1930–1950s
- Field
- Music, Theatre & dance
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Porretta was born in Detroit in 1930 into a family of doctors: his father and two brothers were surgeons, and he entered the University of Michigan as a pre-med student before switching to the music school. After graduating in 1952 and serving as a soloist with the U.S. Army Band, he won the Grinnell Foundation–Detroit Grand Opera Association scholarship in 1954, which paid for his vocal studies in New York. He made his professional debut at New York City Opera in 1956 and stayed fourteen years, singing Alfredo, the Duke of Mantua, Pinkerton and Gilbert and Sullivan heroes and creating roles in new American operas by Robert Ward, Norman Dello Joio and Vittorio Giannini. He also starred in musicals at Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, recorded The King and I and Brigadoon, and played opposite Florence Henderson in the 1970 film Song of Norway.
Highlights
- Fourteen seasons at New York City Opera, 1956–1970
- Won the Grinnell Foundation–Detroit Grand Opera Association scholarship (1954)
- Created roles in operas by Robert Ward, Dello Joio and Giannini
- Starred in the film Song of Norway (1970)