Paul Plishka never forgot his roots in Northeast Pennsylvania.
The operatic singer and actor, who died Feb. 3, was a native of Old Forge who maintained a home north of Honesdale for many years while he was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Plishka died at a hospice in Wilmington, North Carolina, his wife, Sharon Thomas, told The Associated Press. He was 83.
"He bought a country house in Wayne County, over by Cold Spring," said Peter Wynne, a longtime opera writer and former WVIA broadcaster who remembered Plishka for his professional accomplishments as well as being a lively host.
"He wanted to be in Pennsylvania, and he really liked it there," Wynne said.
Plishka, the grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, was born Aug. 28, 1941, and lived in Old Forge until he was 16.
He "grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey — fully expecting to become a farmer, perhaps a trucker, maybe even a football player," as a 2022 WHQR Public Media profile put it.
Instead, the young man took a star turn as brooding farmhand Jud Fry in a high school production of "Oklahoma!"
"A voice teacher introduced him to the world of opera, and he went on to perform for The Metropolitan Opera for 50 years — which is longer than most singers can sustain a career," The WHQR profile said.
Joined Met in his 20s
Plishka joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1967. He appeared in 88 roles over 1,672 performances, according to the New York Times.
"Plishka's rich, dark voice eventually led him to the summits of the bass repertory, including such roles as Philip II in Verdi's 'Don Carlo,' Leporello in Mozart's 'Don Giovanni,' the title role of Verdi's 'Falstaff' (which marked his 25th anniversary with the company), and especially three parts in Mussorgsky's 'Boris Godunov,'" his New York Times obituary stated.
Wynne recalled Plishka having "a voice with great flexibility," but also for his acting skills in a variety of roles.
"One of them that I really liked was his performance as the hustler in L'elisir d'amore, Dr. Dulcamara. He was a very, very fine Dulcamara," Wynne said.
The WVIA music library contains a CD of Ukrainian folk songs sung by Plishka. His autograph on the cover makes it a treasured part of the station's collection.
"Paul Plishka was born with a rich, resonant bass voice, a voice that could melt hearts when he would sing those songs from the land of his family's heritage, and yet he also took that gift to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and brought to life characters who were perhaps nefarious, perhaps funny, like Dr. Dulcamara," said WVIA Senior Producer and Classical Music Host Erika Funke.
"His temperament suited those roles, and yet he also had this bass voice that was always grounding the cast, grounding his colleagues so they could soar," Funke said.
'He was a jovial sort'
Plishka’s first wife, the former Judith Colgan, died in 2004, and they had three sons who all died before him: Paul Jr., Jeffrey and Nikolai, the Associated Press reported.
"Plishka married Thomas, a Met staff stage director, on an off day at the opera house in 2005," that story added.
He retired in 2012, but the Met persuaded Plishka to return for 30 additional performances from 2016 to 2018.
Plishka and Thomas retired to Wilmington, North Carolina where he enjoyed birdwatching and bonsai, he told WHQR.
But Plishka's heart was never far from his Pennsylvania roots, especially when spending time at his home in Wayne County.
Wynne fondly recalled visiting Plishka there.
"He was a jovial sort," Wynne said. "And Paul had a grand sense of humor. He had three roosters, which crowed awfully, and he named each one of them after another bass at the Metropolitan Opera, which I thought was hilarious."
WVIA honored Plishka in 1992 on the 25th anniversary of his tenure at the Met. Accompanied by his mother, he took to the stage during special gala event at the station's studio in Jenkins Township, Luzerne County.
A photo of the pair, with Plishka holding a laurel wreath, is another one of WVIA's treasured possessions, Funke said.
"He sang for us, he spoke to us, and it was as if he was telling us a secret — perhaps being honored by those from his home area might mean more to him than being honored on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera," she added.
