Kirk Jordan (M / United Sates, 1946), singer

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Kirk Jordan

Kirk Jordan (1946) was an American singer and actor.

For three years, from 1956 to 1958, Jodan succeeded Chet Allen and Bill McIver as the protagonists of the annual performances of Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951 Menotti), opera, directed by the composer and broadcasted live on NBC. His 1958 performance was recorded and rebroadcast for another four years after that, from 1959 to 1962, which made him the most familiar face of Amahl on American television.

Born in 1946, Kirk had studied singing with his mother, who was a gifted pianist in Kansas City at Kansas City Light Opera. In February 1956 they made a tape of some songs and sent it to Menotti. In October they received a letter from the composer who invited him to New York for an audition in November. The first two Amahls, Chet Allen and Bill McIver, were from both from the Columbus Boyschoir of Princeton, and there were plenty of candidates for the job from professional choirs. Jordan was an outsider (he was not from the New York area and had no formal training) but Menotti was impressed by his singing and acting talents and he got the part. Beside appearing on television, he performed Amahl in numerous performances all around the States. Typically, the entire cast (including Jordan) performed some a solo arias from Handel's Messiah in the first half of the show, followed by Menotti's opera in the second half.

Works

Acting

Biography