Jerome Hines

Jerome Hines, whose sonorous basso filled and thrilled theaters and opera houses for 61 years, died Tuesday in Manhattan at 81.

Mr. Hines was a mainstay of the Metropolitan Opera for 41 seasons, from 1946 to 1987, and sang 868 performances of 45 roles there, including 256 performances on the Met ' s spring tour that took him to Boston almost annually. He had the longest career of any soloist at the Met, and perhaps the longest career in leading roles of any artist in the history of opera.

In addition to his core work at the Met, Mr. Hines sang at Bayreuth, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala and Munich. A highlight of his career was singing the title role in Mussorgsky ' s " Boris Godunov " at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

In the years after leaving the Met, Mr. Hines continued to appear with regional opera companies where he could encourage young singers. With the Boston Academy of Music he sang in " La Forza del Destino " in 1996, and with Boston Bel Canto Opera he sang the Grand Inquisitor in " Don Carlo " in 2001 his last operatic performance quipping that he was " too young " for the part.

Mr. Hines was born Nov. 8, 1921, in Hollywood, and made his professional debut in a production of " HMS Pinafore " in 1940 at the age of 19. He was still Jerome Heinz then; on the advice of his manager, he changed the spelling of his name during World War II.

There was a slump in his career between 1965 and 1975, when his activities as an officer of the American Guild of Musical Artists put him in conflict with the Met ' s general manager, Rudolf Bing. His religious convictions, which had led him to compose an opera on the life of Christ, " I Am The Way, " also led to his withdrawal from a Met production of Gounod ' s " Faust " that he found sacrilegious.

Mr. Hines was " born again " in a religious experience in 1972 at Chautauqua, N.Y. In response to that, and to battles with cancer and arthritis, he changed his diet and life habits, leading to the rejuvenation of his voice and the prolongation of his career for three more decades.

Mr. Hines produced a massive, noble, steady column of sound that he preserved into old age; it served him well in a variety of roles in Russian, French, German, Italian and English-language operas. Boris Godunov was his favorite role; he sang it in seven musical versions and in three languages.

Tall and lean, he was always an imposing figure onstage, and over the years he developed into a powerful and resourceful actor.

Mr. Hines wrote an autobiography, " This Is My Story, This Is My Song, " and a significant book about vocal technique, " Great Singers on Great Singing. "

" My teacher used to say it takes many things to make a singer, not just a voice, " Mr. Hines said in an interview with the Globe in 1982. " I hear singers in restaurants who can knock you off your feet. But sometimes they are nonmusical or anti-musical. Sometimes they have the playboy mentality and don ' t work seriously. Sometimes they lack emotional stability, or strong motivation. It does take a lot of things to make a career. "

Mr. Hines was married for 48 years to soprano Lucia Evangelista, who died in 2000. Survivors include four sons, John Heinz of Roselle Park, N.J., David of Lynn, Mass., Andrew of Macungie, Pa., and Russell Ray of Scotch Plains, N.J.; and eight grandchildren.