Henry Reese; Singer, Stage Director, Opera Translator

Henry Reese, singer, stage director and prolific translator of operas into English, has died in his Los Angeles home, it was learned Friday.

His wife, Marilyn, said Reese died Sept. 22 after a months-long struggle with a brain tumor that surgery could not entirely remove.

Reese was a Nebraska native who moved between coasts early in his professional career but finally settled in Los Angeles, where he was widely known for his encouragement of young artists. He began his long theatrical career at the University of Chicago, where he wrote and performed in student productions.

Studied in Pasadena

He continued his studies at the Pasadena Playhouse while supporting himself by drawing cartoons for the old Los Angeles Daily News. He next became a reader for Esquire and Coronet magazines in New York, returned to Hollywood to write for movie fan magazines, and then abandoned writing to act and sing in New York musicals in the late 1940s.

Reese, whose biting letters to editors and friends on artistic and municipal issues made him known locally as the “scourge of boobs,” described himself as “a better singer than most actors, (and a) better actor than most singers.”

He was seen on Broadway in “Magdalena,” a 1948 financial flop, and returned West to perform at the Hollywood Bowl during the Civic Light Opera’s season there.

At about this time he began a lengthy affiliation with the American Guild of Musical Artists, a relationship that culminated in 1969, when the guild honored him for his service with a banquet in New York City. He had been chairman of the guild’s Southern California Executive Committee for more than two decades.

Started Translation

During this period Reese began translating the operatic works of Smetana, Rossini, Tchaikovsky and others into English. His version of “Eugene Onegin” was chosen for the opening night at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958.

Reese’s other 35 translations were heard on the old NBC television opera series and in operatic halls across the country, bringing praise from critics ranging from Irving Kolodin of the Saturday Review of Literature to Howard Taubman of the New York Times to Albert Goldberg of the Los Angeles Times.

In 1961, he was nominated for an appointment to the Los Angeles Municipal Arts Commission. One of many letters from around the world urging his appointment came from George London, the famed bass-baritone who reminisced about his relationship with Reese, which began in 1941.

Opportunities Lacking

London, who had lived in Los Angeles for years, wrote from Switzerland about how he and many other artists had been forced to leave the city because of a dearth of performing opportunities.

Instead, London wrote, “Henry Reese stayed in Los Angeles to struggle doggedly for opportunities for young artists and for the implementation of a program which would keep them happily and actively occupied in their own community. . . .”

In addition to his wife, Reese is survived by a son and granddaughter. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the Visiting Nurse Assn.’s Hospice in the Home Program, 3755 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 90004.