Notes Below the Staff

Born in Chicago in 1926, the preeminent bass Herbert Beattie has worked with many of the great operatic lights of the 20th and 21st centuries. From singing in the most celebrated opera houses in the world to school gymnasiums in fishing villages in Alaska. In Notes Below the Staff Beattie gives us an always insightful and often hilarious taste of what it is like to earn one’s living as a traveling opera singer. Not unlike the wandering bards of old, Beattie is a well-spring of amusing tales about both the mighty and the obscure characters he encountered along his path. This book is an open window onto a world both magical and absurd. Enjoy.

April, 2017

158 pages . 6×9 . 23 photographs b&w

ISBN# 978-1-943829-22-4  softcover

$19.95

Herb’s Career

During his career, Herbert Beattie has sung virtually all major roles for an operatic bass, from pre-classical works to contemporary, including some of his own compositions. He has appeared in the storied opera halls of Europe doing the heavy lifting in classic and contemporary roles, to school gymnasiums in Alaska, where he has delighted children of all ages with old and new popular fare. Herb is devoted to opening up the magic world of music for young people, and his affection for them is reciprocated. He collaborated with the Colorado Springs Children’s Chorale to produce an opera he wrote called The Operatic Attic. Many of the child performers regularly came early to rehearsals to talk with Herb about music.

Opera companies throughout the United States have engaged Beattie to sing and/or direct, including ones in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Dayton (Ohio), Cincinnati, Louisville, Houston, Central City (Colorado), Denver, Miami, Fort Worth, Shreveport, St. Paul, and New Orleans. International engagements for Beattie have included performances in Vancouver, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Rome.

Beattie has also maintained an active recital and concert career, performing with composers and conductors such as Darius Milhaud, Aaron Copland, William Walton, Benjamin Britten, Carlo Menotti, Pablo Casals, Carlisle Floyd, and Carlton Gamer. He has sung under the baton of John Finley Williamson, Joseph Krips, Leonard Bernstein, Nadia Boulanger, Zubin Mehta, Leopold Stokowsky, Robert Shaw, Eugene Ormandy, William Steinberg, Donald Jenkins, Emerson Buckley, and Julius Rudel, among others.

From 1970 to 2000, Beattie was stage director and artist/singer for the Colorado Opera Festival, held annually in Colorado Springs, Colorado, under the auspices of the Colorado College and later as an independent organization. He also sang bass roles in many oratorios and concerts produced by the Colorado College and the Colorado Springs Chorale under the direction of Donald P. Jenkins. Well into his eighties, Herbert Beattie was giving solo recitals to overflow crowds in his hometown.