Spiro Malas
Operatic bass who found late renown at the New York Met
SPIRO MALAS, who has died aged 86, was a Greek-american operatic bass with a rich and powerful voice; after a brief career in Britain and Australia he became a stalwart of New York City Opera before belatedly gaining recognition at the Metropolitan Opera at the age of 50.
Tall, stocky and thickset, with dark eyes and a booming laugh, Malas, who was known for his masterly and subtle phrasing, achieved international recognition when he took part in Joan Sutherland’s 1965 opera tour of Australia conducted by her husband, Richard Bonynge. They were joined by Luciano Pavarotti, then a little-known tenor.
Malas made his Covent Garden debut the following summer in Donizetti’s La fille du regiment, again with Sutherland, Pavarotti and Bonynge. It was the first time the work had been seen there for 90 years and one critic observed how Malas, “looking absurdly like Osbert Lancaster, sings and acts as a strongly sympathetic Sulpice”.
Spiro Samuel Malas was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 28 1933, one of four children of immigrants from Sparta in Greece. His mother had been a teenage shepherdess in her homeland and in America his father, Sam, managed Duffy’s, the family’s seafood restaurant.
Spiro spent much of his time creating model aircraft and dreaming of building film sets. “I was very introverted, never sang or knew I could sing,” he said.
After high school he undertook military service, where he would entertain the troops. On his return he studied at Towson State College and spent a year teaching geography, but was inspired to take up singing at 22 after hearing Mario Lanza sing. His father agreed to pay for lessons on condition that no one know about it until his son had proved himself.
He studied at the Peabody Conservatory, made his debut with Baltimore Civic Opera in 1959 and won an American Opera audition to study in Italy. Upon his return he made the first of many appearances with New
York City Opera, in Gianni Schicchi.
He was reunited with Sutherland and Bonynge to make his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1983. Although relatively late to the Met, he immediately became something of a fixture, making more than 150 appearances over the next seven years in works such as Manon Lescaut, Der Rosenkavalier and Tosca, though rarely in major roles. His popularity among the company was enhanced by his mother’s supply of crab cakes.
Malas, who in 1989 appeared in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene with Scottish Opera, was also seen on Broadway, notably in the 1992 revival of Frank Loesser’s musical The Most Happy Fella, which received rave reviews and ran for seven months. He was hurt not to be nominated for a Tony award. There were also occasional television appearances, including a 1999 episode of Sex and the City, “The Man, the Myth, the Viagra”, which featured a cameo by Donald Trump.
Despite his distinctive looks, Malas was not always recognised. Once he was walking in Houston with the soprano Beverly Sills when a man came over and asked if he was Gorilla Monsoon, a professional wrestler. “I just think of myself as a chunky Greek,” he said in 1992. “It’s amazing how you can go from building airplanes to making people cry.”
In 1963 he married Marlena Kleinman, a mezzo-soprano who also sang with City Opera; their wedding took place between rehearsals. She survives him with their two sons.
Spiro Malas, born January 28 1933, died June 23 2019