Paul Plush, an American singer, admitted to her sound, liquid bass tones and virtually excellent diction throughout a profession on the Sofia Opera, which coated half a century, died on Monday in Wilmington, North Carolina, he was 83 years outdated.
His loss of life was confirmed by his spouse, Sharon Thomas, who didn’t cite a trigger or didn’t specify the place he died in Wilmington.
Recognized for a disciplined method to the selection of roles and nice concern for the event of his voice, D -H -Pliska was one of the vital fruitful solo singers in Met, the place he appeared in 88 roles over 1672 performances.
“I feel the key of my longevity was a very good sense to reject the repertoire, which was not appropriate for my voice on the time,” he stated in an interview with this obituary in 2023.
At the start of his profession, he most well-liked Buff or comedian, roles, particularly at Verdi’s operas. “My voice was greater than Baso Cantante – with a lyrical sound – not a voice of a villain,” he stated.
However with a change “Boris Godunov” “ Like Philip II of Spain in Verdi “Don Carlos” and as Mephistopheles in Gounod Faust – All star performances.
Late in his profession, he once more hugged Buff’s roles by drawing particularly for the transmission of an growing old cavalier in Verdi “Falstaff.”
“For me, this collected all the pieces – stunning singing, performing and hero that I used to be so connected to the truth that I missed it between performances,” remembers G -n -Pliska.
Some singers method a brand new function, first attempting to discover this character – however not Mr. Plisha. “I at all times went to the vocals as a result of I needed to make sure of each word I needed to sing,” he stated in an interview in 2023, “When you go to character first, you end to do ugly issues in your throat.”
Amongst his few regrets was to not get sufficient alternatives to play considered one of his favourite characters, the title function in Mozart’s “Figaro’s marriage.” He additionally complained that he was by no means provided the title function in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” – A remedy that attributes to its secure physics.
“Through the larger a part of my profession, I weighed between 240 and 300 kilos,” he stated. “And I do not assume there’s a variety of Don Giovanis that appear to be this.”
When Mr. Plisha retired at 71, his voice was nonetheless wholesome and able to hitting excessive notes, in addition to the low, anticipated by bass. “My listening to turned an issue and it was the primary cause to cease singing,” he stated.
Paul Plushka was born on August 28, 1941 in Outdated Forge, a former coal manufacturing group in northeastern Pennsylvania, the place his grandparents, immigrants from Ukraine, labored in mines and factories. His father Peter was an worker of the inventory. His mom Helen (Patricia) was a seamstress in a clothes manufacturing unit. He had a youthful brother, Peter.
The household strikes to Patterson, New Jersey, the place Paul participates in highschool chop. After singing the function of Jude Fry in Oklahoma! He was invited to affix Patterson’s lyrical opera theater. Its founder and director Armen Boyadzhian has grow to be a voice trainer of G -H -Plishi all through his profession.
D -Pliska studied as a voice specialty on the close by Monkler State College, the place he met with Judith Ann Colgan. They married and had three sons.
G -Ja Plishe and Boyadzhian suggested Mr. Plisha for his performances. “They have been the 2 who knew my voice even higher than I used to be,” he stated. “Judith was a passionate lover of the opera and attended virtually all my performances.”
Mr. Plisha dropped out of school after two years and drove a truck for an ice cream firm whereas persevering with to sing with Paterson.
At 23, he listens to the Sofia Opera and tour together with his nationwide firm. When the corporate folded three years later, it was invited to affix MET in New York.
He’s listening to Rudolf BingThe longtime Met autocratic supervisor provided him Buffo roles. However D -N -Plisha agreed to just accept the work provided that he was allowed to carry out and infrequently dramatic roles. “I do not understand how I discovered the braveness to insist,” he stated.
He made his Met debut in 1967 as a monk in Ponchi “Mona Lisa.” Over the subsequent three years, he carried out 30 different roles, primarily such, together with the lawyer Dr. Bartolo in Figaro’s Marriage and the Massive Brother Meliton in Verdi “The power of fate.”
However by 1970, the sword determined that his voice had grow to be extra appropriate for dramatic roles. He was quickly requested to painting the primary characters, akin to Philip at Don Carlos and Capelanna and Raimondo trainer in Donizetti “Lucia di Lammermor.”
By concern about your voice, d -n -plush in the midst of “Tosca.”
“Each of those characters have nice stress and violence of their voice,” he defined, “and when you’re a younger singer, you possibly can’t management these feelings and finally scream and damage your voice.” He by no means sang Scarpia, however lastly made his debut as Boris Godunov on Met in 1974.
D -n -plish had no troubles to just accept “grey beards” components – like Raimondo in “Lucia di Lammermoor”, King Marke in Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” and touring patent-Lecarski Peller Dulkamara in Donizetti “The elixir of love” – that different singers might reject from concern of being launched into secondary roles. “Many bars simply wish to sing the title roles – Figaro, Don Giovanni, Boris,” he stated.
The splash itself was flourishing a secure mixture of secondary and main roles. Even at first of his profession in Met, he was separated due to his distinctive efficiency as a “foure” by the satan in Faust of the Satan.
– Mr. Plishka’s Mephistopheles have been extra suure, extra malicious in nature than standard, “wrote critic Donal Henahan of The New York Occasions in a evaluate in 1976,” and supplied a number of chills together with his practical outbursts of disenchanted rage .
Wanting again at his lengthy years at Met, Pplka rated Falstaff, which he started to carry out in 1992 as his beloved and greatest represented function.
Critics agreed. – Mr. Plishka gave the function an virtually touching human high quality, “Edward Rotstein wrote in The Occasions, reviewing a 1992 efficiency on Met. “He was Falstaff, virtually temptingly stuffed with himself.”
Outdoors the scene, the plush stand up to appreciable grief. In 1984, his youthful brother, Dr. Peter Plushka, Chief of Youngsters’s Providers on the State Youngsters’s Psychiatric Heart in New York, was discovered useless from a self-inflicted wound to a knife in his condo in Bronx.
The spouse of G -N -Pliska, Judith, died in 2004. Subsequently married Gia Thomas, a former director of the Met resident stage. The three sons of G -N -Pliska, Paul -Jr., Nikolai and Jeffrey have been additionally killed. (In 1991, Jeffrey was Accused of the rape and homicide of Laura Roning, a younger camp advisor within the mountains obedience to Pennsylvania, however he was justified for the crimes in 2010).
Along with his spouse, Mr. Plisha survived his daughter -in -law Fatima Plush and granddaughter.
Mr. Plishka formally withdrew from the Metropolitan Opera after enjoying Sakistan at Tosca on January 28, 2012, however he was invited for 15 performances after retirement akin to Beno concer and Alcindoro in Puccini’s “La bohème” Through the 2016-2017 season.
D -H -Pliska usually insisted that he by no means needed a tenor to be born, the standard male star on stage.
“The function of the tenor is usually one-dimensional,” he stated. “He’s in love with the lady – and that is it. With bass, the characters are way more sophisticated. “
Ash Wu Contributes to reporting.
