In 1969, he shared the stage with Beverly Sills in a production of Ariadne auf Naxos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and later performed often with Sills at the New York City Opera, including in her final 1981 performance, Beverly! Her Farewell Performance. In 1964, he made his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Benoit in La bohème. In 1962 he sang the role of Polonius in the world premiere of Sergius Kagen’s Hamlet in Baltimore. He began his professional career at the Opera Company of Boston during the company’s first season in 1958, singing there regularly through 1970 in such roles as Sellem in The Rake’s Progress and Napoleon in the American premiere of War and Peace. In 2005, Springfield Regional Opera presented the premiere of his opera Babes in the Woods.
He has also directed a number of operas with the New York City Opera and other companies beginning with the NYC Opera’s 1996 production of H.M.S. For his work as a lyricist and librettist he has won awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He has also written operas for children and since the mid-1990s has directed several opera productions. A specialist in the comprimario (supporting role) repertoire, he has portrayed more than 175 opera roles on stage during his long career. Billings ’54, MUS ED, is an operatic baritone, librettist and opera director who began his career in the late 1950s in Boston and later became a member of the New York City Opera where he performed regularly from the early 1970s through the 1990s. For six years during the 1980s, he served on the Bonner Springs City Council in Bonner Springs, Kan., where he also put in 20 years of community service with the fire department, retiring in 1999 at the rank of battalion chief. Beets ’53, ECON, is retired from his position as a business manager at Hallmark Cards, Kansas City, Mo., after 30 years of service. Membership dues support alumni publications as well as other programs and services that support higher education at Wichita State.ĭonald B.
Wichita State University Alumni Association members are identified by an asterisk (*). Comings, goings, appointments, retirements, honors, accolades and other personal alumni news.
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