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Gridiron star girds for battle on operatic stage

By Hope Green

For someone like Morris Robinson, it's good to be king. But it's equally good to be the devil.

	Morris Robinson (SFA'01) as Bluebeard in the Opera Institute's 1999 production of Bluebeard's Castle, with Colleen Firstenberger (SFA'00). Photo by Vernon Doucette

Opera directors find Robinson (SFA'01) a natural for such roles because not only is he a gifted bass, he also has the body of a football star. Ten years ago, as an All-American playing offensive guard for the Citadel, he was blocking opponents on the gridiron. Today he's tackling the arias of Rossini and Rameau.

"For a bass, the roles are going to be kings, fathers, priests, devils -- characters with enormous presence," says the affable Robinson, who just completed his training at Boston University's Opera Institute. "It works to my fortune."

The son of a jazz singer turned Baptist minister, Robinson grew up in a tuneful family, but early on his love of sports trumped his passion for music.

"My parents put me in the Atlanta Boys Choir at age seven. I never, never liked the Boys Choir. Even though I played a lot of music around the house and took piano, all I wanted was to go outside and play football." His parents relented after two years and by age 10 he was heavy enough to play in a football league with 14-year-olds.

In high school Robinson was both a star in chorus and captain of the football team, and at the Citadel he founded and directed the college's gospel choir. In his senior year he sang the national anthem at a number of sporting events, including the 1991 NBA All-Star Game, which was held in his college town of Charlotte, S.C.

Despite his success on the gridiron in school, Robinson didn't make the pros, and after he graduated he went into marketing. Still, he kept up his music. While working for 3M he studied voice privately with Todd Duncan, the original Porgy in the 1935 Boston premiere of Porgy and Bess, who died in 1998.

When Robinson relocated to New England to become an account manager for a plastics company, a chance meeting with Sharon Daniels, director of the Opera Institute, led him to take his talent seriously. BU offered him a full scholarship to the institute, and with his wife's blessing he quit his job to attend school full-time.

Unlike his classmates, Robinson knew nothing about opera. Yet during his first week at BU, he was cast as the duke in the institute's production of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. Simultaneously, partly because he needed the cash, he approached the Boston Lyric Opera and was cast as the king of Egypt in Aïda.

He was nervous about all that he had taken on. Overwhelmed, actually.

Morris Robinson (SFA'01) as an offensive guard in October 1990. Robinson is No. 58, leading the blocking for the Citadel in a 38-35 victory against the University of South Carolina.

"My situation was unique because I didn't come here with a master's in music from Juilliard or some other conservatory as the other students did," he says. "I came here with an English degree from the Citadel and a marketing and sales background. My stage was a football field; I was used to going out in front of big crowds and knocking people over. I could perform that."

With help from the institute, however, Robinson gained proficiency at singing in foreign languages and worked on his stage presence. He took on several more roles; his most recent and favorite one was the part of Bartolo in BU's February production of Le nozze di Figaro. As with football, he found, preparation begets confidence.

"I really developed an appreciation for the voice coaches," he says, "especially Allison Voth. She's probably tougher than any football coach I've ever had, because when it comes to diction and pronunciation being perfect, she takes no flack whatsoever. I mean she's always on you, pointing out every little detail."

Also as with football, Robinson learned to approach every performance with a competitive spirit. "I don't want not to be the best," he says. "That's just the bottom line, and if you're better than me today, I'm going to get you tomorrow. I'm not bragging, that's just how I motivate myself."

Right now Robinson is rehearsing with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis for a nine-week production of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie. His character (of course): Pluto, the angry god. Next he moves on to performances with companies in Providence, R.I., Seattle, and Nashville.

"Going from absolutely no opera background to all these roles is a tribute to these folks at the Opera Institute and how well they prepared me," he says. "It's just a great program. God gave me a natural voice, but they helped nurture and refine it."

Robinson and his wife plan to move to New York in the fall. It's been no small sacrifice for him to give up a successful career. He had the company car, expense accounts, a nice home, "all the stuff people work really hard in college to get. I was doing that." He can always return to that way of life, he says, but he hopes he won't have to.

"I think my old friends from football are my biggest supporters," he says, "because they all work in corporate America and they say, 'Look, man, you can always come back and do what we're doing. We want to know somebody who sings opera.'"

27 April 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations