Britton made his professional opera debut at the
Chautauqua Opera in the summer of 1934. He was a regular performer with that company for over the next decade. In 1936 he married Patricia Norton at Chautauqua; they were divorced by 1946. Also in 1936 he made his first appearance at the
Worcester Festival in a concert of opera arias with soprano
Helen Jepson and conductor
Albert Stoessel. He returned to that festival several times during the late 1930s and 1940s. In 1938, Britton sang Silvio in PAGLIACCI in Prague with Richard Tauber as Canio. In 1941 Britton made his
Carnegie Hall debut portraying the title role in
Giacomo Puccini's
Gianni Schicchi with the
National Orchestral Association under the baton of
Léon Barzin. He sang several roles with the short-lived
New Opera Company (NOC) in
Manhattan in the early 1940s, notably portraying Prince Tomsky opposite
Martha Lipton in her professional opera debut as Pauline in
Tchaikovsky's
The Queen of Spades in October 1941. He also starred in the world premiere of
Walter Damrosch's
The Opera Cloak with the NOC in November 1942. In the summer of 1942 he made his first appearance at the
Paper Mill Playhouse in
Franz Schubert's
Blossom Time. In 1945 he presented the world premiere of
Miriam Gideon's art song "The Hound of Heaven" at the
International Society for Contemporary Music convention. Britton made one of his earliest forays into musical theatre in 1943, appearing in the
Blackfriars Repertory Theatre's original musical,
Moment Musical. The following year he returned to the Paper Mill Playhouse (PMP) to star in a production of
Sigmund Romberg's
The Student Prince. He was a regular performer at the PMP up through 1950. In 1946 he portrayed Huckleberry Haines in
Jerome Kern's
Roberta at the
Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and starred in
Victor Herbert's
The Fortune Teller at the
Curran Theatre in San Francisco. He made his
Broadway debut at the
New Century Theatre in September 1946 as Sandor in
Robert Wright and
George Forrest's
Gypsy Lady. In 1948 he performed on the cast recording of
Arthur Schwartz and
Howard Dietz's musical review
Inside U.S.A.. The recording was made before the show premiered on Broadway, and Britton did not actually appear in the stage production. Britton continued to perform in operas, musicals, and concerts throughout the United States during the late 1940s through the early 1960s. In 1950 he portrayed Don Andrès de Ribeira in
Jacques Offenbach's
La Périchole at New York's
Town Hall under the direction of
Maggie Teyte. That same year he portrayed the four villains in Offenbach's
The Tales of Hoffmann for
NBC Opera Theatre and the role of Massakroff in
Oscar Straus's
The Chocolate Soldier on NBC's
Musical Comedy Time. He made several appearances with Philadelphia's Co-Opera Company in the early 1950s, including Mr Gobineau in
Gian Carlo Menotti's
The Medium. In January 1952 he took over the role of Emile de Becque in the original Broadway production of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
South Pacific, staying with the production until it closed on Jan 16, 1954. In 1953 he recorded selections from
Anything Goes and
Kiss Me Kate with
Lisa Kirk and
Helena Bliss for
RCA Records. In 1961 he appeared in the United States premiere of
Roland Fiore's
Linda at the
Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company. Although initially a singer by profession, Britton was also a talented guitarist. In the early 1950s he became seriously interested in the music of his mother's
Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. He began performing concerts of these folk pieces with just his voice and a guitar. In 1955 he recorded his only solo album, "Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Songs", with
Folkways Records. The recording is now a part of the collection at the
Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. After leaving
South Pacific in 1954 his performance career became increasingly more involved with performing folk music and by the mid-1960s he had left classical music entirely. For many years he was heavily involved with the
Philadelphia Folk Festival, which he helped establish in 1962. ==References==