The Baritone

There was a group of four of us who in the 1980s found ourselves a few times a week at a table in the Tap Room of the New York Athletic Club after work, downing prodigious amounts of beer. I wasn't a member of the NYAC, but my friend Tom was, and he invited me to imbibe with Jack and Don.

Don was an opera buff, and at some point he informed us that all baritones were cock-suckers. No one argued, and Tom, who I know also liked opera, seemed to agree. I'm not sure if by then I had ever even attended an opera, but the statement is one I will forever remember.

I tested the accuracy of the statement when I did happen to see a few operas, and sure enough, the father who was protecting his daughter's virginity, the jailer, the landlord, the scoundrel, was always a baritone, or a bass, or a bass-baritone. I paid close attention to this and have forever found it be true.

So when I saw in a recent NYT obituary that Franz Mazura, 95, has passed  away and that he was the voice of villainy in operas, I knew I'd soon be reading he was a baritone. And he was, a bass-baritone. Don's long ago statement told me so.

The obituary, by the Times's chief music critic, Anthony Tommasini, doesn't go so far as to declare that Mr. Mazra was the greatest of all cock-suckers, but he does list a lengthy set of roles that Mr. Mazura added his booming voice to:

• Klingsor, the evil sorcerer in Wagner's 'Pasifal.'
• Don Pizarro, the corrupt governor of a state prison in Beethoven's 'Fidelio.'
• Dr. Schön, a morally bankrupt and lecherous newspaper editor and the murderous Jack Ripper in a double-role (perfect for a bass-baritone) in Berg's 'Lulu'.
• Alberich, the sneering nasal-toned dwarf in Wagner's 'Ring' cycle.
• The Doctor, a darkly buffoonish role in Berg's 'Wozzeck.'
• Scarpia, a sadistic police chief in Puccini's 'Tosca.'
• Hans Schwarz in Wagner's 'Die Meistersinger.'

Apparently, like in wrestling, opera needs a heel to present to the audience.

It seems he played some good guys with deep voices, but much preferred the villains. His wife playfully said he didn't have to act in those parts, he was just making himself feel at home.

Mr. Mazura was born in Salzburg Austria and lived in Eisenstadt, and later Vienna. He passed away in a hospital in Mannheim, Germany.

As a cock-sucker, Franz followed in his father's footsteps, his father, also Franz, being a tax inspector in Austria.

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