Paul Plishka (August 28, 1941 – February 3, 2025) was an American operatic bass based at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in New York City where he appeared first in 1967 and last in 2018, in 88 roles and 1672 performances.

He also sang at leading houses internationally, a regular guest at La Scala in Milan and touring with the ensemble to Tokyo and Moscow.

[1] Plishka made his formal debut with the Met as the Monk in Ponchielli's La Gioconda in 1967,[1] alongside Renata Tebaldi, Rosalind Elias and Sherrill Milnes.

"[3] Over his first three years, he performed around 30 smaller and mostly buffo roles, including Bartolo in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Fra Melitone in Verdi's La forza del destino, but from the 1970s was assigned more dramatic roles such as Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust in 1976, reviewed by Donal Henahan for The New York Times: "Mr. Plishka’s Mephistopheles was a harsher, more plainly malevolent character than is usually seen, and provided a few chills with his realistic outbursts of frustrated rage.

He appeared in as Pimen in Boris Godunov, conducted by Claudio Abbado in 1981, as Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena in a revival of the Luchino Visconti production in 1982.

He performed as Pagano in Verdi's I Lombardi in 1986, Zaccaria in Nabucco conducted by Riccardo Muti in 1988, as Timur in Puccini's Turandot with Ghena Dimitrova in 1988 and 1989, and in the same season as Capellio in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

[2] Plishka performed in Europe first in 1975, as Philip in Don Carlos at the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg.

He performed as a guest at the Liceu in Barcelona in 1986, and as Phanuël in Massenet's Hérodiade at the Hamburg State Opera and the Orange Festival.

[2] He appeared at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as Pope Clement VII in Benvenuto Cellini by Berlioz in 1992 and as Count Walter in 1993.

[2] Plishka appeared at the San Francisco Opera as Padre Guardiano in 1976, in 1982 as Zaccaria, in 1984 as Silva, in 1986 as Mephistopheles, in 1987 as Rocco, in 1991 both as Capellio and General Kutusov in Prokofiev's War and Peace, and in 2003 als Bartolo in Rossini's Barbiere.

[2] He is remembered for "sonorous, liquid bass tones and near-perfect diction", as Jonathan Kandell wrote in The New York Times.

[1] Plishka was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great American Opera Singers in a celebration at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.

[4][7][10] Plishka met Judith Ann Colgan at Montclair State College; they married and had three sons,[1] Paul Jr., Jeffrey, and Nicolai.