Tuesday 25 September 2012

Sir Arthur Bliss ~ a glorious homecoming.

Well, it happened and what an occasion – a true moment of music history.

For Michael Foster, this was the culmination of a 21 year dream – to bring The Beatitudes home to be performed in Coventry Cathedral, the iconic building for which it was commissioned and written and where it should have been performed on the evening of the Cathedral’s Consecration in May 1962.

Not only was it not performed in the Cathedral then, but it had to wait 50 long years to be so, Saturday last, 22nd September 2012.

In conversation, Michael said that for other men they might have a vintage car or perhaps a boat that was their life’s dream and passionate hobby, but for him it was The Beatitudes and that it should perform in Coventry.

I was lucky enough to help with the marketing of the project, not least the writing of this Blog to tell and share the amazing story that was to become Bliss’ journey, home to Coventry. When corresponding with Michael (many times daily) I would sign myself off Rodney Bashford, Chandlerthis was the night Michael Foster’s boat came in.

I am not a musical journalist – anything but, so this is not a review of the evening. I leave that to the professionals and none perhaps more so than John Quinn who writes for MusicWeb International. This is John’s review: http://www.seenandheard-international.com/2012/09/23/the-beatitudes-in-coventry-cathedral-50-years-late/.

For me that’s it. The boat is home and we have done our level best to honour the memory of a gentleman – Sir Arthur Bliss.

These are some final thoughts, the memories I leave to the photographs that follow.

For Jonathan Crown, son of Jennifer Vyvyan, Bliss’ Soloist for the fated premier of The Beatitudes, I’m sure he felt that his own mother’s memory was beautifully heralded by the joyous voice of Orla Boylan, soloist for the homecoming.

To a person, orchestra, chorus, soloists, everybody had that extra lift to do justice to the work that night. Paul Daniel, conductor, put personal grief behind him and was so clearly enthused to lead, as he put it “the real premiere of this magnificent work”.

John Spence, Director of Membership at the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus told me beforehand “how much the chorus was looking forward to the performance. They knew the story and were each delighted to be playing their part in musical history”.

So, beginning with the Chorus gathered before the West Screen of Coventry Cathedral in advance of the concert, I invite you to enjoy the photographs of Richard Lycett who has superbly captured this extraordinary journey’s end:

Andrew Kennedy, Tenor - Orla Boylan, Soprano - Paul Daniel, Conductor:

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra:

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus:



Omar Ebrahim, narrator - Schoenberg's 'A Survivoor from Warsaw':
























Tuesday 18 September 2012

Bliss ~ the Coventry homecoming draws closer

It’s time to forget the wrongs and look forward now to the rightThe Beatitudes is finally going to be performed in the iconic arena of Coventry Cathedral for which it was written over 50 years ago.


As part of a concert including Schoenberg: ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ op 46 and Beethoven: Symphony no 5 in C minor op 67. With the BBC Philharmonic and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, Paul Daniel is conducting.

Tenor Andrew Kennedy, soprano, Orla Boylan and narrator Omar Ebrahim round off the key contributors to what promises to be an extraordinary performance as well as an historic musical event.

It is quite hard to get one’s head around the fact that The Beatitudes was written by Sir Arthur Bliss with his loyal librettist, Christopher Hassall, to celebrate the opening of a brand new Cathedral, conceived, created and built as a symbol of post war peace and reconciliation.

Whilst not performed post war and in the icy chill of the cold war – the message it conveys is as true today as it would ever have been in May 1962.

If you can, come along and be part of history at 7.30 pm on 22nd September 2012 – it’s never too late for hope.






The full story can be read in an extraordinary Souvenir Programme available on the night.

It can also be read as part of the tribulations considered in Michael Foster’s new book on Britten’s War Requiem – The Idea Was Good, available @ www.warrequiem.co.uk






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Tuesday 11 September 2012

Two sopranos – one historic voice

Elizabeth Watts had been previewed as the soprano performing in the extraordinary musical event that brings The Beatitudes home to Coventry on 22nd September. Elizabeth was unable to fulfil the role and we are delighted to announce that Orla Boylan (pictured below) will now perform in this historic concert.


Perhaps it is fate that Orla will again be singing under Paul Daniel, conductor, with whom she recently performed Vier Letzte Lieder with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra under Paul Daniel and War Requiem with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Is this a sign?

 …for surely it was Britten’s War Requiem (together with no lesser a degree of ego-massaging miss-management) that ‘forced’ Sir Arthur Bliss’ Beatitudes to be performed, not in the iconic Cathedral for which it was written, but in Coventry’s old and acoustically challenged theatre.

The Times has described Orla Boylan as “…the Irish soprano in sensational form.” And we are all looking forward to welcoming her and The Beatitudes into Coventry Cathedral – home, finally.

It was Jennifer Vyvyan (pictured below) who, in May 1962, should have taken to the stage below the huge vaulted ceilings of the new Coventry Cathedral to sing the soprano sections of The Beatitudes, so caringly and passionately written by Sir Arthur Bliss (Master of the Queen’s Music) for the Cathedral’s Consecration – to be performed on the night of the Consecration.

But, this was not to be.

Jennifer Vyvyan’s son, Jonathan Crown, will be attending the concert on 22nd September and wrote: “ I am very much looking forward to attending this exciting event”.

For the original fated performance, Bliss was particularly pleased to receive the letter from Jennifer accepting his invitation for her to perform the soprano role. She was in fact on honeymoon at the time, having married Leon Crown.

She wrote to Sir Arthur – “Thrilled to bits with the parcel that arrived this morning.” -  He had posted the new score of The Beatitudes to Jennifer on her honeymoon - “am hard at work already and think it is wonderful. More soon. XXX J.V.”

[The original postcard can be seen in the Cambridge University Library.]

But it was not to be. She performed admirably, but the performance could not deliver what was intended as a grand celebration of everything Coventry’s new Cathedral was to stand for. Sir Arthur called it “a major disappointment” and Jennifer took in her professional stride what Bliss referred to as “a maladjustment most unfortunate to me…”.

Professional understatement in the shadow of a more vocal creative regime.

On 5 April 1974 Jennifer Vyvyvan suffered complications from a bronchial/asthmatic condition she’d been struggling to control for years, and died at her home in Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead, NW London. She left a husband, Leon Crown (married 1962) and a 9yr-old son Jonathan Crown.

Orla Boylan is no stranger to grand musical occasion. Her presence and her voice will carry Bliss’ memory to an audience who eagerly await this amazing homecoming. Under the familiar baton of Paul Daniel, who himself said: “I'm delighted to be a part of paying homage to Sir Arthur Bliss in this wonderful event. Putting things right after all these years is long overdue and I'm really looking forward to conducting the real 'premiere' of this magnificent work.” This promises to be a truly magnificent occasion.

 At 7.30 pm on 22nd September this year, Coventry promises a rapturous welcome and enthusiastic performance of The Beatitudes in a concert including:

Paul Daniel, conductor
Orla Boylan, soprano
Andrew Kennedy, tenor
Omar Ebrahim, narrator
BBC Philharmonic
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus
Schoenberg: ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ op 46
Beethoven: Symphony no 5 in C minor op 67
& Bliss: ‘The Beatitudes



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Friday 31 August 2012

An excited home coming to Coventry and her iconic Cathedral

We’re bringing The Beatitudes home, finally.

Paul Daniel, Conductor and former Chorister at Coventry Cathedral says:


I knew a bit about The Beatitudes from my years at Coventry Cathedral but it was always spoken about in 'hushed tones'. Now I know why and I'm delighted to be a part of paying homage to Sir Arthur Bliss in this wonderful event. Putting things right after all these years is long overdue and I'm really looking forward to conducting the real 'premiere' of this magnificent work.”








Michael Foster, Golden Jubilee Concerts Director says:


“This is the culmination of a 21 year dream to right the incredible wrong done to an extraordinary musician, an impressive ‘gentle’man and a remarkable piece of music.

Everyone currently in and around Coventry Cathedral; those involved with the management, design and production; the performers: Philharmonic Orchestra, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, soloists and Conductor – we are all looking forward to bringing The Beatitudes home to be performed FINALLY in this iconic building – the setting, acoustics and organ for which Sir Arthur so lovingly wrote the piece.”





Omar Ebrahim, Narrator and formed Chorister at Coventry Cathedral writes:


I'm thrilled to be involved in this historic event - even in a small way. Coming 'home' to perform in Coventry Cathedral will be a real joy. Don't let the name Schoenberg put you off! This is an emotional piece that goes to the heart of what Coventry Cathedral stands for.”









At 7.30 pm on 22nd September this year, Coventry promises a rapturous welcome and enthusiastic performance of The Beatitudes in a concert including:

Paul Daniel, conductor
Orla Boylan, soprano
Andrew Kennedy, tenor
Omar Ebrahim, narrator

BBC Philharmonic
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

Schoenberg: ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ op 46
Beethoven: Symphony no 5 in C minor op 67
& Bliss: ‘The Beatitudes



WHAT WAS THE WRONG AND WHY SUCH A THRILL?

Written for the grand, new Harrison & Harrison organ
– played on a small Hammond.

On 22 November 1961, a two-column article appeared in The Times under the headline: ‘Britten's War Requiem for Coventry Festival’.  Of its four paragraphs, the first belongs to Bliss’ The Beatitudes, again explicitly noting that the Bliss work would be the first performance of the Festival ‘to mark the consecration of the new Cathedral of St Michael’.

The next passage is devoted to ‘the premiere of A War Requiem, an ambitious new choral work’ by Britten billed as ‘the other major concert event of the festival’. The article indicates that Britten's work would indeed ‘take place in the cathedral’, but nowhere does the article refer to a non-Cathedral setting for Bliss’ work.

…One might assume, therefore, that The Beatitudes would be performed in the Cathedral – as commissioned, as written, as planned, as intended.

Six months later, on 18 May 1962 – a week prior to the opening of the Festival – The Times ran a pre-performance commentary concentrated on The Beatitudes. The music critic wrote that the Festival sought to mark the occasion with the programming of ‘much new British music, composed to enhance the completion of a new architectural monument to mankind's loftiest ideal.

Outstanding in proportion among these works are three major works; one by Bliss, Tippett, and Britten’.  This article was part of a series intended to educate the listening public prior to the works' premieres.

It contains a most extensive discussion of The Beatitudes, detailing its fourteen movements and the distribution of interleaved poetry between verses 3 – 11 of the third chapter of St Matthew with seventeenth-century writers Henry Vaughan, George Herbert, and Jeremy Taylor, and the additional inclusion of the then-contemporary Dylan Thomas.

The article also reveals the subtitle of Bliss’ orchestral prelude – ‘A Troubled World’ – with the intention of setting the 1962 world view in context together with a quotation from John Donne, at the head of the score: ‘.... we, except God say Another Fiat, shall have no more day ...’. The article delves into the poetry and its placement between the Beatitudes, commenting upon the selections of non-Biblical texts, texts that Bliss described as ‘shafts of light reflecting off a broken mirror’. 

...written for this...


At 8:15 pm on Friday, 25 May 1962, the opening concert for the Festival's ‘Days of Consecration’ began with the National Anthem, followed by Bliss’ The Beatitudes, with soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and tenor Richard Lewis, the Festival Choir, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted not by Sir Malcolm Sargent, as the printed programme states, but by the composer himself. This change had finally been agreed two weeks earlier at the request of the artistic director.

...performed in this...
"...a major disappointment" wrote Bliss.

As such it may be seen as a placatory measure towards the somewhat devastated composer. Devastated because this much heralded premiere was not performed in the new Cathedral whose Consecration and very premise it celebrated, but in the old Coventry Theatre.

Elgar's Enigma Variations followed the interval, and the evening concluded with the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ and ‘Amen’ from Handel's Messiah. The concert was broadcast live on the BBC Home Service.

The following day The Times printed its review of the premiere beneath the headline: ‘Sacred music, but in a secular atmosphere’. The Times’ music critic wrote: ‘The premiere tonight confirmed the regret there expressed that The Beatitudes was not able to be performed in the cathedral for which it was composed.

One might even claim that the new work cannot yet be justly appraised, on the basis of this performance in the utterly secular ambience of the Coventry Theatre’. The critic praised the ‘celestial rapture of the settings for two solo voices’, but suggests that ‘the orchestral movements inevitably sounded cramped’.
Bliss’ own recollection of the event, from his autobiography, is similar to the tone of parts of The Times article suggesting that he quietly incorporated into his remembrance:
Sir Arthur Bliss wrote:

"As the day for the premiere in May drew near, I realised I was in for a major disappointment. I had been led to believe that the performance was to take place in the majestic surroundings of the new Cathedral, but alas! the Cathedral was needed for services and the concert was relegated to the Coventry Theatre, a maladjustment most unfortunate to me.

Instead of the ecclesiastical grandeur which I had imagined, there was the ugly theatre whose stage could not properly contain both large orchestra and chorus. The latter could not be placed where their voices would tell, and some of them acknowledged that from where they were wedged in they could not see my beat. Also I had written an important part for the Cathedral organ. What effect could one possibly obtain from an imported small Hammond organ? We had to do the best we could."




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Monday 16 July 2012

A Tale Of Two Concerts - The Beatitudes Now and Then

The concert to be performed in Coventry Cathedral on 22nd September is surely one for the contemporary connoisseur and popular classicist alike.

Here are some notes on the three pieces to be performed by the BBC Philharmonic with the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus:

In alarming remembrance of the Warsaw death camps:

The weighty unknown Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): A Survivor from Warsaw Op 46


It is first a warning to all Jews, never to forget what has been done to us…the miracle of the story is, to me, that all these people who might have forgotten, for years, that they are Jews, suddenly facing death, remember who they are.”  Arnold Schöenberg 1947


Left: Jan Komski (1915 - 2002 - 'Hanging and Eating' (Auschwitz Museum, Poland).

‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ is arguably a landmark composition about spiritual resistance in the Warsaw ghetto, written in a ten-day burst of inspiration during August 1947. The inspiration was the horrific news of the atrocities that the Nazis had inflicted upon the Jews in the ghettos of Warsaw.

The extraordinary resonance of this piece shows there to be no time limit to the power of the musical message. Schöenberg takes just 7 minutes to alarm, astound, still an audience to shocking acknowledgement of an unforgivable period of human desolation.


For popular toe-tapping di di di daah entertainment:

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827): Symphony No. 5 in C Minor Op 67

‘Beethoven’s romanticism … that tears the listener irresistibly away into the wonderful spiritual realm of the infinite.’  E T A Hoffman (1808)

How best to write about what is probably the most well-known work in the entire classical music repertoire?  That difficulty can also affect the listener, since the sheer familiarity of the piece can sometimes in itself be a barrier to the full appreciation of what is, despite everything, still one of the great masterpieces of the early nineteenth century. 

Perhaps the answer is to listen, as it were, with fresh ears, as if in the audience at the first performance in December 1808, even if they were familiar with the Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, must surely have been astonished at the force and compressed power of this awesome vision of triumph over tragedy.

Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C minor, op. 67 is rightly considered a natural continuation of  Symphony No. 3, "Eroica", because it approaches the same themes and it expresses the relationship between particular and general. The name under which it sometimes circulated, " The Symphony of Destiny ", is linked to the words of Anton Felix Schindler, his biographer, who, invoking an explanation given by the composer referring to the first bars in Part I of the fifth symphony, stated: " So pocht das Schicksal an die Pforte! " (That’s how destiny knocks on your door).




The first four notes subsequently became synonymous with the sound of Victory in Europe – VE Day, their forming the letter V  -

dot dot dot dash - in Morse code.





Share this moment of music history. The Beatitudes – home, finally:

Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KT, KCVO; 2 August 1891 – 27 March 1975
In collaboration with the librettist:
Christopher Vernon Hassall (24 March 1912 – 25 April 1963):       The Beatitudes

The assertion of faith, healing and serenity that underlies The Beatitudes acquires meaning for Bliss precisely because it emerges victor in that very protest and struggle against 'the cruelty, misery and evil in this world’’.

Bliss suffered a creative block after being told his was no longer the only commission for the Festival of Consecration in May ’62 (although it was known ‘internally’ he was not told the work would not even be performed in the Cathedral until just 4 weeks before the premiere).

Bliss was concerned that in setting the Beatitudes there was the danger of monotony. Hassall suggested the idea of the Beatitudes as the subject of the work and conceived the choice of texts, which would act as interludes and commentaries on them.

Bliss wrote in his autobiography As I Remember: ' ... each Beatitude shines with the same clear silver gleam, and little contrast of light is possible without deliberately using a distorted mirror’.

The work has many high spots: for example, the anguished orchestral prelude that depicts ‘A troubled world', and the disturbing outburst of hate of the 'Voices of the mob' ending on their shout of 'Kill!' Such intrusions of violence contrast with the setting of Herbert's 'Easter', with its exultant, melismatic 'alleluias' of the soloists, and effective musical imagery at 'Awake my lute', scored for soprano and harp, followed by the lyrical tenderness of 'I got me flowers to strew thy way' into which Bliss introduces the Easter antiphon 'Haec dies quam fecit Dominus'. Particularly memorable is the defiant mood of Thomas' 'And death shall have no dominion', Bliss's rapt response to Taylor's 'O Blessed Jesu', and the majestic, glorious 'Amen' with which The Beatitudes ends.



...and the concert THEN:

Bliss - 8:15 p.m. on Friday, 25 May 1962

At 8:15 p.m. on Friday, 25 May 1962, the opening concert for the Festival's "Days of Consecration" began with the National Anthem, followed by Bliss's The Beatitudes, with soprano Jennifer Vyvyan and tenor Richard Lewis, the Festival Choir, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted not by Sir Malcolm Sargent, as the printed programme states, but by the composer himself.

This change had only been agreed two weeks earlier at the request of the artistic director. As such it may be seen as a placatory measure towards the somewhat devastated composer. Elgar's "Enigma" Variations followed the interval, and the evening concluded with the "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Amen" from Handel's Messiah.

The following day The Times printed its review of the premiere beneath the headline:

"Sacred music, but in a secular atmosphere." The Times' music critic wrote: "Some account of the work's contents was given in my music article of a week ago. The premiere tonight confirmed the regret there expressed that The Beatitudes was not able to be performed in the cathedral for which it was composed. One might even claim that the new work cannot yet be justly appraised, on the basis of this performance in the utterly secular ambience of the Coventry Theatre”. The critic praises the "celestial rapture of the settings for two solo voices," but suggests that "the orchestral movements sounded cramped, in the wrong sense".

Bliss's own recollection of the event, from his autobiography, is similar to the tone of parts of The Times article suggesting that he quietly incorporated into his remembrance, is worth considering:

As the day for the premiere in May drew near, I realised I was in for a major disappointment I had been led to believe that the performance was to take place in the majestic surroundings of the new Cathedral, but alas! the Cathedral was needed for services and the concert was relegated to the Coventry Theatre, a maladjustment most unfortunate to me.

Instead of the ecclesiastical grandeur which I had imagined, there was the ugly theatre whose stage could not properly contain both large orchestra and chorus. The latter could not be placed where their voices would tell, and some of them acknowledged that from where they were wedged in they could not see my beat.

Also I had written an important part for the Cathedral organ. What effect could one possibly obtain from an imported small Hammond organ? We had to do the best we could'.


Bliss came with rank and of the establishment, ‘by Royal Appointment’ one might say.

When Bliss was first invited and commissioned to write a musical celebration to be performed after the Consecration of Coventry Cathedral, he was at the peak of his prolific career.

A Cambridge classicist, Bliss cut short his formal training at the Royal College of Music at the outbreak of WWI. He served with distinction as officer with the Fusiliers and then The Grenadier Guards – twice shot and once gassed; mentioned in dispatches. His successful musical portfolio grew with rapidity reflecting his hunger for work. He was an approved part of the establishment having spent a number of war time years as Assistant Director of Music at the BBC. And in 1953 he was appointed Master of the Queen's Music.

He might be said to have come ‘by Royal Appointment’ and was certainly befitting the importance of the global spotlight that was to shine on the occasion in May 1962.

                




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Friday 13 July 2012

Bliss Tenors - then and now

NOW

In the ‘home coming’ concert of 22nd September, when The Beatitudes will be performed in Coventry Cathedral for the first time – despite having been written specifically for its Consecration in 1962, the magnificent voice of Welsh born Andrew Kennedy, will be Tenor.

Andrew studied at King's College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London and was a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House. He has appeared on the stages of ENO, the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne and La Scala in performances of repertoire from Mozart to Britten.

In concert he has performed Finzi’s Intimations of Immortality with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Elgar’s Spirit of England at the Last Night of the BBC Proms in 2007. Equally passionate about song repertoire, Andrew gives numerous recitals in Europe and the UK and appears regularly with the pianists Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles, Iain Burnside and Malcolm Martineau.

His numerous prizes and awards include the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prize. He is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award winner and won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artists' Award in 2006. He was also a member of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme.


Operatic roles include Tamino (above) The Magic Flute (English National Opera); Flute A Midsummer Night's Dream (Royal Opera Covent Garden); Jaquino Fidelio (Glyndebourne Festival); Ferrando Così fan tutte (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Nemorino L'elisir d'amore (Opera North); Tom Rakewell The Rake's Progress (La Monnaie and Opéra de Lyon, released on DVD); Vere Billy Budd (his Houston Grand Opera debut), Tito La Clemenza di Tito (Opéra de Lyon), Shepherd Tristan und Isolde (Glyndebourne Festival), his La Scala debut of Tom Rakewell, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Opera National de Lyon), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw  (Houston Grand Opera), Belmonte Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Welsh National Opera), Flamand Capriccio (Grange Park Opera), Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia for Den Norske Opera and Max in Der Freischütz for Opera Comique, Paris under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Equally passionate about song repertoire, Andrew gives numerous recitals in Europe and the UK and appears regularly with the pianists Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles Iain Burnside and Malcolm Martineau.

When asked in a recent interview about the balance between his operatic roles and his growing solo performances, Andrew said: “I truly believe that both are essential for a healthy technique. I adore opera, of course, but songs help me find new colours in opera, and I love the intellectual challenge.”

Of Andrew it was said:  “Kennedy allows the music to speak for itself by offering direct, unfussy vocalism, preferring to leave a few rough edges in his singing rather than polishing away every hint of individuality. Unlike many current singers who strive for homogeneity, Kennedy seems to trust the composer and simply sings the music on the page, restricting histrionic interjections to a minimum and allowing his voice to flow freely”.

His fast growing discography includes four solo albums (‘Strauss Songs’ with Roger Vignoles for Hyperion; ‘On Wenlock Edge’ with the Dante Quartet/Simon Crawford Philips for Signum Classics; ‘The Dark Pastoral’ with Julius Drake and Simon Russell Beale for Altara Classics and ‘The Curlew’ with Simon Lepper for Landor Records) and two shared recital discs (‘On Buying A Horse’ and a recording of Liszt songs both with Iain Burnside for Signum Classics). Andrew has recently released his first orchestral album of Gluck, Berlioz and Mozart arias for Signum Classics.


AND THEN

Richard Lewis CBE (born Thomas Thomas, later changing his name to Richard Lewis by deed poll) was born in Manchester of Welsh parents in 1914 (died 1990).


A talented draughtsman and painter. A scholarship was offered to him at the local art school, but it was music he wanted.

During all these years he studied singing with a local singing teacher and conductor, TW Evans, who had a choir. Richard's father, Thomas, was a member. Soon Richard was showing that he had a remarkable soprano voice, acquiring a reputation in and around Manchester, even earning a few shillings to help the family budget.

He was invited to a BBC audition but just before leaving to record in London his voice broke. His teacher said 'no more singing'. These would be years of frustration. He longed above all to be a tenor, emulating his heroes of that time, Richard Tauber and Beniamino Gigli.

The day came when he could try his voice. He was a tenor, more excitingly, a fine one. He began to sing again, acquiring a reputation locally. But would this be enough? When he was twenty-five (after nine years waiting) he was offered a scholarship to study full-time at the Manchester School of Music (now the Royal Northern).

But fate had not finished with him yet. Hardly a month had passed when the Second World War broke out and Richard was drafted into and spent five years in the Royal Signals.


Even here he had a bit of good luck. His commanding officer, a woman (Mary Kirkby), heard him sing and decided he would be more use as a British army ambassador. Consequently, Richard was flown out to sing, with just one stipulation - that he wore army uniform (above).

Demobbed and with a Grant to the Royal Academy of Music, he was still Thomas Thomas. On advice to change, he took his hero Richard Tauber's first name, and his mother's maiden name of Lewis. So Richard Lewis was finally born.

Benjamin Britten was at that time forming his "English Opera Group".  Peter Pears was his first tenor. A second tenor was needed. Lewis was taken on after auditioning, opening at Glyndebourne with 'The Rape of Lucretia' in 1947.

But he would also play second fiddle to pears and had to move on. Glyndebourne became his musical home for over thirty years and was always his favourite opera house, he was free to learn his craft, work with the finest conductors such as Vittorio Gui, John Pritchard, Raymond Leppard, Fritz Busch and producers such as Carl Ebert, Peter Hall, and Günther Rennart.

His reputation was soon established.







Left - Richard Lewis as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte











Among the first works he performed was Mozart's 'Idomeneo', a role he practically made his own, ideal for the darker sound in his lyric tenor voice.

Of all the Idomeneo productions over the years, the original with Sena Jurinac, Birgett Niilson and Leopold Simeneau, produced by Carl Ebert, stands out as one of Glyndebourne's finest. Later Lewis sang the role, near the end of his career, with Luciano Pavarotti at Glyndebourne and later in Geneva.

Other fine productions, legendary in Glyndebourne's history - 'Cosi fan tutte'- Stravinsky's 'Rakes Progress' with Richard singing the first British stage performance at Glyndebourne - Beethoven's 'Fidelio' (Opera Magazine thought 'Lewis was one of the finest Florestans they had heard' - Strauss' Ariadne' - 'Don Giovanni' with Geraint Evans, Jurinac, Sutherland, Freni - Monteverdi's 'L'Incoronazione di Poppea' - 'Il Returna d'Ullise' with Janet Baker (later with Von Stade). This would be his last role with the company, as the old shepherd. So might have begun a fine 'character role' career, but illness made it impossible.

In 1963 he was made Commander of the British Empire.

He became a favourite with twentieth century composers creating several important new roles. His musicianship and a photographic memory gave him the ability to learn difficult music quickly, plus he had a knack of making it sound easy. Tippet favoured him and would have no one else.

Lewis auditioned to Malcolm Sargent after the war, showing the musicianship that would be become legendary. Sargent, firing a tenor who had been engaged to sing Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis", asked a London agent if there was a tenor who could sing it. Yes, he had.  Lewis, never having seen the score, far less sung it, looked at it in the train to Liverpool, sang it to Sargent, and was engaged. So began an artistic association that would last for his whole career.

Little wonder this was the voice Bliss chose for The Beatitudes.


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