[1] He notably starred opposite Maria Callas as Goffredo in the American Opera Society's lauded 1959 production of Vincenzo Bellini's Il pirata, which was recorded for EMI Classics.
These included the first recording of Paul Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1946);[4] Polyphemus in George Frideric Handel's Acis and Galatea (1946);[5] and the part of Siméon in Claude Debussy's L'enfant prodigue with Bernard Herrmann conducting the CBSSO in 1947.
[8] This was followed by several appearances on television with the NBC Opera Theatre in the 1950s and 1960s, including the role of Father Julien in the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's The Trial at Rouen in 1956.
[9] Other operas he performed on television with that company included Lukas Foss's Griffelkin (the Lion, 1955[10]), Giacomo Puccini's La bohème (as Benoit, 1956[11]), Mozart's The Magic Flute (1956), Prokofiev's War and Peace (as Count Rostov, 1957[12]), Verdi's La traviata (as Dottore Grenvil, 1957[13]), Beethoven's Fidelio (as Rocco, 1961),[14] Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1962), and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (as Raimondo, 1964[15]).
That same year he performed and recorded the role of Goffredo in the American Opera Society's lauded production of Vincenzo Bellini's Il pirata starring Maria Callas at Carnegie Hall.
[19] In 1960 he was committed to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, portraying the roles of Antonio in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Bonze in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Cirillo in Umberto Giordano's Fedora, and Pietro in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.
[3] Watson was also active on the concert stage throughout the United States, and was particularly admired for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Christoph Willibald Gluck.