July 27, 2011
BG’s suggestions for Vance turned out to be good ones. Revision done, bloopers excised, historical anxieties eased.
Don Catrone is dead of pancreatic cancer. Of all my high school friends, he seemed to have his future the most surely determined. Did he become an opera star? I know he’s dead, but I know nothing else. Sad.
1 comment:
I knew Don from my years at KSU in the mid-70s. Don was attending Akron U at the time. I moved to NYC in 1977, and Don lived with me for 8 months when he later moved to NYC back around 1980 or so. He studied with a number of NYC-based voice teachers and did a few professional performances, a couple of recent ones are on YouTube. He never became an opera star in any real sense of the word - just a few roles here and there in showcases and a few minor roles with legit regional companies, but nothing that would label him a star. From what I can gather, he spent most of his life working as a waiter with his singing being basically on the side. There's an article on the internet from 2009 recounting Don singing for Aretha Franklin at a Rockefeller Center restaurant where he was working as a waiter.
I believe he was married and divorced, maybe twice - first wife from his young days in OH, with a later marriage to someone he met in NYC (can anyone confirm?). Don't know if he had any kids. He was a simple, nice guy. Sorry to hear he's gone.
Mark Stenroos
California (but born in Ashtabula, OH.)
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