A native of Arlington, Virginia, Booth studied singing at the Eastman School of Music with Julius Huehn and with Todd Duncan in Washington D.C.
[3] On October 16, 1975, Booth made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Tom in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Nicolai Gedda is Ricardo, Roberta Peters as Oscar, and Henry Lewis conducting.
He went on to sing more than 30 roles with the company over the next two decades, including Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Colline in La bohème, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, Dansker in Billy Budd, Don Fernando in Fidelio, Dr. Grenvil in La traviata, both Fafner and Fasolt in The Ring Cycle, Grégorio in Roméo et Juliette, Gualtiero in I puritani, the Jailer in Tosca, the Marquis de Calatrava in La Forza del Destino, Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Pimen in Boris Godunov, both Ramfis and the King in Aida, Schmidt in Andrea Chénier, Talpa in Il tabarro, Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Wagner in Faust, and Zuniga in Carmen among others.
He later returned to Santa Fe in 1980 to perform the role of Sarastro in The Magic Flute and Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin.
[5] In 1989 he notably portrayed the role of Pantalone De' Bisognos in the American premiere of Pietro Mascagni's Le maschere at the Washington National Opera.