David Atkinson (baritone)

David Anthony Stuart Atkinson (born David Burke; October 20, 1921 – October 4, 2012) was a Canadian baritone and New York Broadway actor/singer. Most of his career was spent performing in musicals and operettas in New York City from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, although he did appear in some operas and made a few television appearances. In 1952 he created the role of Sam in the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. From 1956-1962 he was a leading performer at the New York City Opera where he starred in several musicals and appeared in the world premieres of several English language operas. His greatest success on the stage came late in his career: the role of Cervantes in Man of La Mancha which he portrayed in the original Broadway production (replacing Richard Kiley), the 1968 national tour, and in the 1972 Broadway revival.

Born David Burke in Montreal, Atkinson grew up in Saint-Romuald, Quebec. While his parents were native English speakers, his community was French speaking and he learned to speak both languages as a child. After studies at Bishop's College School, he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II in the South Pacific just prior to Japan's surrender. After the war he studied music at McGill University in 1946. He left McGill in 1947 after winning a scholarship to attend the Juilliard School in New York. He remained at Juilliard for only one year, leaving the school to begin his career as a musical theatre performer in the Fall of 1948. He continued to study singing privately with Harry Jompulsky in New York City.

While studying at Juilliard, Atkinson made his professional opera debut using his birth name 'David Burke' with the Opera Guild of Montreal (OGM) in January 1948 as Monterone in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. The following May he performed the role of the High Priest of Dagon in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah with the OGM. In September 1948 he made his Broadway debut under the name "John Atkinson" (Atkinson being his mother's maiden name) succeeding John Tyers as Franz Liszt in the musical revue Inside U.S.A. He remained with the production for the musical's first national tour after it closed in New York in February 1949. In 1951 he performed in several productions at the Paper Mill Playhouse, including the roles of Prince Franz in Victor Herbert's Sweethearts,Edvard Grieg in Robert Wright and George Forrest's Song of Norway, and Pierre Birabeau in Sigmund Romberg's The Desert Song. In June 1952 he portrayed Sam in the world premiere of Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti at Berstein's Festival of the Creative Arts on the campus of Brandeis University to an audience of nearly 3,000 people. The following November he reprised the role of Sam in a nationally televised broadcast of Trouble in Tahiti presented by the NBC Opera Theatre (NBCOT). He would later sing the role of Sam again at the New York City Opera (NYCO) in 1958. In 1953 he performed the role of Don Jose in Georges Bizet's Carmen with Vera Bryner in the title role for NBCOT.

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