Paul Althouse
| Paul Shearer Althouse | |
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| Born |
December 2, 1889 Reading, Pennsylvania |
| Died | February 6, 1954 (aged 64) Manhattan, New York City |
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Paul Shearer Althouse (December 2, 1889 – February 6, 1954) was an American opera singer. He began his career as a lyric tenor with a robust Italianate sound, in roles like Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca, Lieutenant Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana. He later branched out into the dramatic tenor repertoire, finding success in portraying Wagnerian heroes. He sang with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for 30 years.
He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on December 2, 1889 to Harry Jacob Althouse (1871-1937) and Laura May Shearer (1873-1942).
Althouse sang as a boy soprano in the choir of his hometown's Episcopal Church. He received his first voice lessons at the church from Evelyn Essick. He studied music at Bucknell University and then singing privately with Perley Dunn Aldrich in Philadelphia and Oscar Saenger and Percy Rector Stevens in New York City. He made his professional opera debut with the Philadelphia-Chicago Grand Opera Company as the title hero in Charles Gounod's Faust in an out of town engagement in New York City.
Althouse debuted at the Metropolitan opera in a small role in The Magic Flute on November 23, 1912. His first major assignment with that company came on March 19, 1913 as Grigory in the United States premiere of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. He was notably the first American tenor without European experience to sing at the Met.
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