James Loomis (Bass)

Born: June 27, 1925 - Conneuat, Ohio, USA

The American bass, James Loomis, studied from 1946 to 1947 with John O. Samuel in Philadelphia, from 1947 to 1951 at the Curtis Institute of Music Philadelphia with Eufemia Giannini Gregory and from 1952 to 1953 at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome with Rachele Maragliano-Mori.

From 1955 to 1956 James Loomis was engaged at the National Theatre of Oldenburg, and from 1956 to 1957 at the Opera House of Wuppertal. Since that time he unfolded an intensive concert and stage appearance activity of international level cut from Lugano, where he had his domicile. In August 1958 he participated at the World Exhibition Hall in Brussels in the premiere of the opera Maria Golovin by Gian Carlo Menotti. He appeared particularly on the major Italian opera stages, at the opera of Rome, at the Teatro Fenice Venice, at the Teatro Filarmonico Verona, at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, at the Teatro Sociale Mantua, in Turin, Genova, Spoleto and Siena.

James Loomis' stage repertoire included roles such as Caronte in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Minister in Fidelio, Eremit in Freischütz, Blansac in La scala di seta by Rossini, Daland in Fliegenden Holländer, Dottore Bombasto in Arlecchino by Ferruccio Busoni, the Doctor in Wozzeck by Alban Berg, the King in L'Amour des trois oranges by Prokofieff and Riedinger in Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith.

Of more importance was the concert career James Loomis developed, in which he appeared in the area of the oratorio in works of J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, L.v. Beethoven, Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Felix Mendelssohn, Verdi, Carl Orff, Igor Stravinsky and Franc Martin. He gave concerts in Lugano, Geneva, Lausanne and Zürich, at Milan’s La Scala, in Napoli, Venice, Turin, Florence, Lucca, Mantua and Rome, in Vienna and Paris. He was also characterised as a Lieder singer. He gave numerous radio appearances in Italy as in Switzerland, where he could be heard constantly 1952 in Radio Lugano, in addition to other radio stations.

Recordings: Decca (Oedipus Rex by I. Stravinsky), Erato (Petite Messe Solennelle by Rossini), Accord (Péchés de ma vieillesse by Rossini), Eurodisc-Cycnus (Works of Monteverdi, Antonio Caldara and Antonio Vivaldi), Bongiovanni (Alcide al Bivio by V. Righini).

Source: Operissimo Website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (July 2001)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (July 2001, October 2001)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Hermann Scherchen

Bass

BWV 106

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