Titus studied under
Aksel Schiøtz at the Colorado School of Music, and Hans Heinz at
The Juilliard School. His official debut was as Marcello in
La bohème in Washington, D.C., in 1969. He came to prominence, however, in
Leonard Bernstein's theatre piece
MASS, creating the role of the Celebrant.
MASS was commissioned by former First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy for the September 1971 opening of the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Titus created the role of Archie Kramer in
Lee Hoiby's
Summer and Smoke (after
Tennessee Williams) in St. Paul in 1971, and repeated the role in his
New York City Opera debut that same year. He found a home at the
New York City Opera, where he was a leading baritone for many seasons. He participated in nationally televised performances of
Il barbiere di Siviglia (with
Beverly Sills, 1976),
Il turco in Italia (1978),
La Cenerentola (opposite
Susanne Marsee and
Rockwell Blake, 1980), and
Madama Butterfly (conducted by
Christopher Keene, 1982). He made his only appearances with the
Metropolitan Opera in 1976, as Harlekin in
Ariadne auf Naxos, with
Montserrat Caballé. In 1974, the baritone appeared in the world premiere of
Hans Werner Henze's
Rachel, la cubana, for WNET Opera Theatre, opposite
Lee Venora and Marsee, conducted by the composer. In 1973, Titus made his European debut, in Amsterdam, as Pelléas in Debussy's
Pelléas et Mélisande. He has since been heard at Glyndebourne, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Vienna, Paris, Rome, London (
Covent Garden), Berlin, etc. At the
Teatro alla Scala, the baritone appeared in
Arabella (1992),
Elektra (directed by
Luca Ronconi, 1994),
La fanciulla del West (1995),
Die Frau ohne Schatten (in
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production, 1999), and
Salome (2002). He made his
Bayreuth Festival debut in 1998, in the title role in
Der fliegende Holländer and repeated the role in 1999. At Bayreuth in 2000, he portrayed Wotan in
Das Rheingold and
Die Walküre and The Wanderer in
Siegfried; and repeated all three roles in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. He portrayed Wotan at the
Teatro Real de Madrid in 2003. He returned to Bayreuth in 2009 to portray Hans Sachs/Schuster in
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In 1994, the singing-actor was awarded the title of Kammersänger, in Munich. In his discography are recordings of Beethoven's
Fidelio (as Don Pizarro) and Ninth Symphony (conducted by
Giuseppe Sinopoli), Bizet's
Carmen, Catalani's
La Wally (as Gellner), Donizetti's
Don Pasquale (with Sills, conducted by
Sarah Caldwell), Haydn's
La fedeltà premiata (conducted by
Antal Doráti), Lehár's
Die lustige Witwe (excerpts, in English, under
Julius Rudel), Leoncavallo's
La bohème, Mozart's
Don Giovanni (led by
Rafael Kubelík) and
Le nozze di Figaro (as Figaro, conducted by Sir
Colin Davis), Puccini's
La bohème (led by
Kent Nagano), and Verdi's
Falstaff (as Ford, with Sir Colin Davis). Titus retired in 2010, following a forty-year career. ==See also==