Paul Plishka, Whose Metropolitan Opera Career Spanned 51 Years, Dies at Age 83

Paul Plishka as the Grand Inquisitor (L), and Sergei Larin as Don Carlo, perform in the opera "Don Carlo" by Giuseppe Verdi during a rehearsal at the Salzburg Festival’s Grosses Festpielhaus in Salzburg, Austria, on Aug. 4, 1998. Ronald Zak/AP Photo

Paul Plishka, a powerful bass with a ready smile and hearty laugh who sang 1,672 performances at the Metropolitan Opera over 51 years, has died. He was 83.

Plishka died Monday at a hospice in Wilmington, North Carolina, his wife, Sharon Thomas, said Wednesday.