Robert Brubaker (born Earl Robert Brubaker, January 14, 1953) is an American singer and actor who has had a long international performance career in operas, musicals, and concerts. A native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, he made his opera debut in 1970 at the age of 17 as a baritone with the quasi-professional Lancaster Opera Workshop. He performed in operas and musicals in Lancaster during the early 1970s prior to studying voice at the Hartt College of Music from 1972-1977. In 1978 he joined the chorus of the New York City Opera (NYCO). He performed as a chorus member in the NYCO until he was promoted to a principal baritone in 1983. He played mainly supporting character roles with the NYCO until he transitioned into a leading tenor in 1987. Over the next six years his repertoire at the NYCO included many romantic leads in operas by Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi. He remained with the NYCO company until 1993 when he began working as a freelance tenor.
Brubaker made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera ("the Met") as Zorn in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in January 1993, and later that same year had a major critical success at the Spoleto Festival USA in the title role of Alexander von Zemlinsky's The Dwarf. He repeated this latter role for his European debut at the Rome Opera, and has since had a busy international career with a variety of European and American opera companies. He has made numerous appearances with the English National Opera, and has appeared as a guest artist with organizations like La Scala, the Paris Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Liceu and the Teatro Real among many others. Described by critics as a "lyric heldentenor", he has sung many parts from the dramatic and lyric tenor fachs; including roles in operas by Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, Benjamin Britten, Sergei Prokofiev, and Leoš Janáček among other composers. He has performed with intermittent regularity with the Met; most recently as Monostatos in The Magic Flute in 2017. Several of his Met performances have been recorded for Metropolitan Opera Live in HD or the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts. In his late career his repertoire has shifted to character tenor roles. In the late 2010s he gave several performances at the San Francisco Opera; including playing the Witch in Hansel and Gretel in 2019. He has been inactive as a performer since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Early life The son of Reverend Arthur Brubaker and his wife Ethel Brubaker, Earl Robert Brubaker was born on a farm on Pleasant Valley Way in Rapho Township, Pennsylvania on January 14, 1953.Earl Robert Brubaker in the New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018E Robert Brubaker in the U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1 One of eight children in the Brubaker family, he has four brothers and three sisters. His father was a minister in the Brethren in Christ Church denomination. He spent part of his childhood living in Virginia where his father pastored a church. The family struggled financially and had difficulty making ends meet.
Due to family financial challenges, Robert decided to leave his parents home at the age of 13 and moved back to Pennsylvania to live with his uncle. His frustration with the poor quality of the Virginia schools he attended also informed his choice to leave his parents. He lived with his uncle on a farm located in rural Lancaster County in the region between Manheim and Mount Joy. He lived there until he was 15 years old when he reunited with his parents after they acquired a home in nearby Mount Joy. At that time his father had assumed a position as pastor of Shenk's Union Church near Hershey, Pennsylvania. Robert worked paid jobs, including farm work, since the time he was 13 years old and was entirely self supporting from that age on.
Brubaker took an interest in singing when he joined the choir at Elizabethtown Area High School (EAHS) in the 9th grade. He began taking voice lessons with that choir's director, Charles Millard. With Millard's assistance he successfully auditioned for the district and regional choruses of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association in 1969; and was able to participate due to Millard's generosity in purchasing the proper concert clothing for Brubaker. His teacher also provided transportation to the events. He became interested in opera after randomly stumbling upon a Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast of Aida while cleaning out the stalls and replacing the hay in his uncle Samuel's cow barn. He subsequently studied voice privately with Romayne Bridgett, and was trained as a baritone. While in high school he attended the Conoy Brethren Church where he served as choir director and a youth leader. He graduated from EAHS in 1971, and then spent the next year working in a lumber mill.
Education and early career Lancaster Opera Workshop and Hartt College of Music In 1970 Brubaker won the Dorothy Darr Lancaster Youth Contest which was sponsored by Lancaster's local opera company. He appeared in his first opera at the age of 17; performing with the Lancaster Opera Workshop (LOW, later known as the Lancaster Opera Company and OperaLancaster) in November 1970 as Silvio in Pagliacci during his senior year at EAHS. He appeared in operas and musicals in Lancaster in the early 1970s; portraying Brack Weaver in Down in the Valley (1971, LOW), Prince Yamadori in Puccini's Madama Butterfly (1972, with LOW); Captain Tarnitz in The Student Prince (1972, LOW), Matt in The Fantasticks (1972, The Actors Company Of Pennsylvania), and Escamillo in Carmen (197?, LOW). He also performed locally as a church musician; including as a soloist in a presentation Handel's Messiah (1970).
In 1972 Brubaker won a four year scholarship to the Hartt College of Music (HCM) at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, and began his studies in the 1972-1973 academic year. At HCM he studied voice with David Rae Smith, and graduated with a bachelor of music degree in 1977. He married fellow HCM student Barbara A. Long in 1974. The couple knew each other earlier having attended high school together before attending the same university. The couple later welcomed a daughter, Monica, into their family in 1982.
While a student at HCM, Brubaker was a soloist at music events at Center Church in Hartford Saint Ann's Church in Avon, and First United Methodist Church of Meriden. In 1977 he was a finalist in the Boston Opera Guild auditions, and won the Eastern Connecticut Symphony's vocal competition for young artists which was held at Connecticut College. This led to a concert contract with the orchestra with Brubaker singing Ralph Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs with that symphony in June 1977.
New York City Opera chorus and other early work Brubaker continued his career in the ensemble of the Connecticut Opera Association; performing in the chorus in productions of Don Carlos, Rigoletto, and Otello in 1976-1977. After graduating from HCM, he moved to Montclair, New Jersey and pursued further studies in voice with Metropolitan Opera bass-baritone Louis Sgarro in New York City. He joined the chorus of the New York City Opera (NYCO) in 1978 where he worked initially as a baritone in the company. Some of the NYCO productions he performed in while a chorus member included Naughty Marietta, Street Scene (filmed for PBS), the world premiere production of Miss Havisham's Fire (filmed for PBS), Gluck's Alceste, and Candide. He also occasionally was given tiny comprimario roles in NYCO productions during this period giving his small bits of solo singing; such as the Herald in Maria Stuarda (1981) and the Head Waiter in The Merry Widow (1982). He received vocal coaching at this point of his career from Doris Kosloff, Irene Kahn Berkman, and Richard Foster.
While singing in the NYCO chorus Brubaker pursued other performance opportunities including appearing at the Fulton Opera House as Charlie Dalrymple in Brigadoon (1979), Cole Porter in the musical revue Porter (1980), and Fred Graham/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate (1981). He gave recitals at Elizabethtown College (1980), and Central Presbyterian Church, Montclair (1980). In 1982 he sang the part of the "Voice of God" in Igor Stravinsky's biblical drama The Flood in its ballet version Noah and the Flood by George Balanchine which was staged by the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. That same year he performed the title role in Martin the Cobbler in his home town of Montclair. He appeared as a baritone soloist with the Oratorio Society of New Jersey multiple times; including in Orff's Carmina Burana (1984), A German Requiem by Brahms (1985), and Haydn's Nelson Mass (1985).
New York City Opera baritone and tenor In 1983 Burbaker was promoted to a principle singer at the NYCO; making his debut in a principal role with the company that year as Dancairo in Carmen. He toured nationally in this production with Melanie Sonnenberg in the title role. Other roles he sang with the NYCO included the Lion in Candide (1983-1986), Benoît and Alcindoro in La bohème (1984), Tartaglia/ 2nd Inquisitor in Casanova's Homecoming (1985) Pantalon in The Love for Three Oranges (1985-1986, with John Lankston and Joyce Castle), a beggar in Kismet (1986), Schaunard in La bohème (1986), Stuart in Brigadoon (1986), Wagner in Faust (1986, with Jerry Hadley and Faith Esham), and Seabee Richard West in South Pacific (1987, with Justino Díaz as Emile). In 1984 he portrayed Papageno in The Magic Flute with the New Jersey State Opera.
In 1984 Brubaker began the transition from baritone to tenor under the guidance of Beverly Sills; beginning his work in this area as a cover for tenor parts at the NYCO while performing with that company as a tenor. In 1987 he won the Opera Index Awards competition in New York as a tenor. Shortly after this he made his debut as a tenor at the NYCO as Beppe in Pagliacci. He initially played mainly supporting and secondary tenor parts at the NYCO; including Nogi in The Desert Song (1987), Von Asterberg in The Student Prince (1987), Gastone de Letorières in La traviata (1987, with Marilyn Mims), The First Priest in The Magic Flute (1987), Oliver Hix in The Music Man (1988, with Bob Gunton and Leigh Munro), both Lord Arturo Bucklaw and Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor (1988), and Pang in Turandot (1991, with Ealynn Voss in the title role).
The earliest major tenor roles Brubaker performed were with the NYCO's touring National Company; including the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto (1987), Alfredo in La traviata (1989, with Brenda Harris and Sandra Ruggles as Violetta), Rodolfo in La bohème (1990), and Cavaradossi in Tosca (1992, with Nina Warren in the title role). He sang Rodolfo at Lincoln Center with the NYCO for the opening of the 1991-1992 season with Michèle Boucher as Mimì and Lauren Flanigan as Musetta. In the 1992-1993 season he performed with the NYCO as Alfred in Die Fledermaus.
Later career Metropolitan Opera In 1991 a scout for the Metropolitan Opera ("the Met") caught Brubaker's performance as Pang with the NYCO and he was offered an initial contract with the company as a "cover" artist. After covering several tenor parts, he made his Met debut on January 14, 1993, as Zorn in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Later that year he portrayed Scaramuccio in the Met's new staging of Ariadne auf Naxos with Jessye Norman in the title role and Ruth Ann Swenson as Zerbinetta. He also performed the role of Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi at Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College to an audience of children as part of the Met's Opera Guild education outreach program in May 1993. This production was filmed.