American baritone Willliam Warfield (1920–2002) wasn’t the first singer to become inseparably associated with Jerome Kern’s stirring anthem “Ol’ Man River.” However, he may be the most remembered singer to have rendered the song.

This was just one chapter of his impressive career and life, which included performances on Broadway, concerts on great stages, roles in grand opera, and a memorable marriage to a fellow opera star.

Man of Many Talents

William Warfield is quoted as saying:

“I wanted it all. I wanted ‘Show Boat’ and ‘Porgy’ as well as Brahms and Fauré. I wanted the spirituals along with the boogie-woogie, and grand opera, too. I wanted the Hollywood film and I wanted the bistro gig, the international tour and the White House Command Performance.”

Warfield had a taste of all these arts, perhaps not achieving as much in any one field as he could have had if his focus been more specialized.

William Warfield was born on Jan. 22, 1920, in West Helena, Arkansas. His father, a sharecropper and Baptist minister, moved his wife and five sons to Rochester, New York, when eldest son, William, was 5 years old.

While a senior at Rochester’s Washington High School, the 18-year-old singer won the National Music Educators’ League district competition in St. Louis. The prize was a scholarship to any music school in America, and he chose Eastman School of Music, also in Rochester.

Between earning his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the school, Warfield served in the intelligence department of the US Army during World War II.

He joined a touring road show of the Broadway musical “Call Me Mister” by Harold Rome (1946), appeared in the original Broadway cast of “Set My People Free” (1948), and played a small role in the premiere of the American opera “Regina” (1949).

Forging a Career

In a 1988 interview with Bruce Duffie, Warfield recounted how, although he had classical voice training, opportunities to sing grand opera were limited for a young black man, so he chose a concert career. In 1950, Warfield made his debut as a concert singer at New York’s Town Hall.

The Australian Broadcast Corporation invited him to tour Australia, performing 35 concerts. Meanwhile, MGM’s Roger Edens cast the young baritone in the studio’s Technicolor remake of Jerome Kern’s beloved musical “Show Boat” (1951). Although it starred big Hollywood names like Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, and Ava Gardner, Warfield’s powerful, passionate rendition of “Ol’ Man River” remains one of the film’s standout scenes.

His emotional performance as riverboat worker Joe impressed the studio so much that they planned to feature him in a musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” but the project never came to fruition.

Warfield’s only other film role was a cameo appearance as a tugboat captain in the 1990 film “Old Explorers.” He played the role of “De Lawd” in three television productions of “Green Pastures,” twice in live broadcasts and once in the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” TV series. He also sang on many television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Recording Artist and Soloist

Warfield established himself as one of his era’s most renowned singers of American spirituals and German lieder (art songs). In 1955, the Philadelphia Orchestra chose him as the official soloist for their first European tour. He made six concert tours for the U.S. Department of State, the record for any American artist.

In the 1950s, he made recordings of both sets of Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs,” having given the premiere performances. He was the bass soloist in two prestigious recordings of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “The Messiah”; in these recordings he performed under the baton of Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic in 1956 and Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1959.

Nevertheless, his name quickly became associated with “Ol’ Man River.” He made three studio recordings of this song as part of the show’s soundtrack. He frequently performed it in concerts, too, even as his voice deepened from baritone to bass-baritone. Eventually he sang in full bass, requiring him to leave out some high notes in his later years.

Warfield’s Bess, Leontyne Price

The operatic highlight of Warfield’s life was performing in George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” playing the title couple with soprano Leontyne Price. This 1952 tour, sponsored by the U.S. State Department, played to sold-out crowds in Europe’s best theaters, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan. It was the first American opera ever performed in this famous theater. The tour ended on Broadway in 1953, but Warfield left before it returned to New York because of recording commitments.

While playing the titular lovers in this show, Warfield and Price fell in love in real life. They were married in August 1952. Sadly, their marriage didn’t last long because their performing schedules often kept them apart. By 1958, they were legally separated. Nevertheless, they worked together on a 1963 studio recording of excerpts from “Porgy and Bess.” They weren’t officially divorced until 1972. Neither ever remarried.

Warfield dedicated his later decades to teaching and inspiring future generations of young singers. He was a professor of voice and later chair of vocal music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Music. He also was a voice professor at Northwestern University.

From “Ol’ Man River” to “Porgy and Bess” to his teaching, Warfield left a shining musical legacy as a great American artist.

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