I would not have immediately thought of the great Robert Rounseville if not for a recent (March) comment about tenors who never made it to the Met. From one Mister Snow to another, I salute him.

My first exposure to him was as Mister Snow in the film of Carousel. Coincidentally, Carousel was the first musical I saw live (at 8) with John Raitt, Reid Shelton (in Rounseville’s role), Patricia Neway and Sandy Duncan (as one of Snow’s children). When a sophomore in college, I was in the chorus of The Rake’s Progress (for which he had originated the title role), and a couple years later I played the Padre in Man of La Mancha, another role that he had created.

Fortunately, we have much audio and video records of his work. Rounseville’s other Broadway roles included creating the title role in Bernstein’s Candide (opposite Barbara Cook and Irra Petina) which became a classic OC recording. Several of opera roles were preserved as well including title roles in the recording of The Rake’s Progress and Pressburger film of The Tales of Hoffmann (where the only performers to both sing and act their roles were him and the Antonio – Ann Ayars). He did a number of operas for television as well including Nanki-Poo in The Mikado (with Groucho and Helen Traubel), the American premiere of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead, and NBC Opera Theatre English versions of Carmen (Don Jose) and Dialogues of the Carmelites (with Leontyne Price). He appeared repeatedly on The Voice of Firestone.

He also spent time in the recording studio, most noticeably in a great series of operetta recordings with Dorothy Kirsten, conducted by Lehman Engel (including the first complete recording of the score of The Student Prince).
For my selection, I have chosen how I first heard him – as Mister Snow. The duet was mercilessly shortened for the film release, but fortunately the soundtrack included the full version, so you can hear him in his stirring solo section at the beginning capped by a ringing high A that inspired a little me.