#FlashbackFriday: The Exchange Officer Who Sang With the Metropolitan Opera

Sixty-eight years ago, in its August 1956 edition, the Exchange Post ran a story about Lt. Col Arthur Kent, an Exchange officer assigned to the Fort Douglas Exchange in Utah. Kent, a reserve officer who served on active duty from 1942 to 1945 and from 1951 to at least 1956, had a parallel career as an opera singer.

Kent attended Cornell University in Upstate New York, where he became interested in music after joining the glee club. After moving to New York City, he sang in churches and appeared on Broadway in “I Married an Angel” in the late 1930s.

In spring 1940, Kent was co-winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air with Eleanor Steber, who would go on to be an opera star herself. On Dec. 7, 1940, he made his Met debut playing the “Second Philistine” in a production of “Samson and Delilah.”

His association with the Met was interrupted in 1942 when he entered active duty. During World War II, he sang at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, known as the “Church of Presidents.” He twice sang at the White House—including singing bass in the quartet that sang at funeral services for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Lt. Col. Robert Kent, out of costume and in uniform in a 1956 Exchange Post photo.

He rejoined the world-famous opera company for the 1945-46 season after concluding his tour of active duty, appearing as Masetto in the Mozart opera “Don Giovanni” (Kent is pictured in the role at right in the photo at the top of the story).

During three seasons, Kent appeared in many operas including “Carmen,” “Pagliacci,” “Tosca” and more. All told, he sang more than 20 roles in four languages: French, German, Italian and English.

In 1945, Kent also played the lead role, composer Edvard Grieg, in the Broadway production of “Song of Norway” before he rejoined the Met.

Tracking Kent after 1956 isn’t easy. The August 1956 article, which focuses more on his opera career than his Exchange work, appears to be the only mention of him in the Exchange Post archives. But he did merit a New York Times obituary when he passed away on Dec. 3, 1980, at age 74. The obituary says that Kent returned to full-time military service and retired as a lieutenant colonel. The last reference to him in the Metropolitan Opera Archives is his role in “Don Giovanni” in 1946.

Sources: Exchange Post archives, The New York Times, Metropolitan Opera Archives