"I know I'm not a perfect singer," says Robert Cantrell. "Who wants a perfect singer? All the great ones had their flaws."
The Georgia-born bass-baritone gives a little laugh as he says that, the laugh of someone who doesn't take himself too seriously. But Cantrell does take his art very seriously, as audiences will be reminded Sunday when the Baltimore resident will be a soloist in the Handel Choir of Baltimore's performance of the exquisite Requiem by Maurice Durufle.
For the better part of two decades, Cantrell, 44, has been a frequent and much-admired contributor to the region's musical life. He began appearing with the Baltimore Opera Company shortly after starting graduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory in 1987.
"I had a chance to be an apprentice with the company and did a lot of small roles," the singer says. "That was the good thing. The bad thing was that I wasn't really prepared for that world. My background had been in church music. I never had any aspirations to be an opera singer. I was pulled into a different path when I came to Peabody."
Stanley Cornett, the exceptional tenor who was Cantrell's primary teacher at the conservatory, recalls the budding student.
"He was in his formative years. Technically, our big task was to get that voice working, especially the top notes," Cornett says. "He grew as a musician, from a student who was scared to get through the most basic arias. I'm proud to see his evolution into an artist."
Hearing Cantrell today, "the depth and beauty of the voice is what strikes you," says Cornett, who points out additional assets. "He's a gentle, cuddly, very ingratiating person. And when he walks into a room, everyone responds in that way. He makes you feel you're the most important person in the world."
Cantrell didn't always feel too important back when he was getting his vocal cords wet at the Baltimore Opera. "Some conductors I worked with were total [jerks] who were not at all helpful to a student," he says.
Nonetheless, the bass-baritone gradually gained skills and confidence, enough to audition successfully for the Washington National Opera chorus. "I kind of wanted to spread my wings," he says.
In 1992, he made his debut with the D.C. company as a chorister in Puccini's Turandot, with soprano powerhouse Eva Marton in the title role. "Oh, my God! I had never been near a voice that huge," Cantrell says. "And it was fantastic seeing that personality in rehearsal. One time, the conductor said, 'You're late.' She just said, 'No, maestro, you wait for Eva.' "
