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James McCracken ( 1926 - 1988) was an American tenor.
He studied music at Columbia University and with Elsa Seyfert in Konstanz, Germany.
He made his debut in 1952 as Rodolfo in Puccini's "La bohème." In 1957, he moved to Europe and made his debut at the Vienna State Opera. He had great success with the Zuerich Opera.
Otello was one of his signature roles. Starting in 1963, he became one of the Met's principal dramatic tenors.
He returned to the Met only weeks before his death at the age of 61. He was a member of the Metropolitan Opera's final U.S. tour, where he sang the role of Canio in Pagliacci.
McCracken left a legacy of fine recordings, such as "Le prophète" (with Marilyn Horne and Renata Scotto, c1976), "Carmen" (conducted by Leonard Bernstein, 1972), "Fidelio" (with Birgit Nilsson, 1964), "Otello" (with Dame Gwyneth Jones, 1968) and "Pagliacci" (1967), as well as Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder (with Jessye Norman, Tatiana Troyanos and David Arnold, 1979).
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