Death of a London opera agent

David Law, co-founder of the Stafford Law agency which launched Placido Domingo’s career, has died after many years of illness.

He suffered near-complete paralysis after a brain stem bleed in 2002 and was cared for ever since by his son, Dominic Stafford Uglow. Margherita Stafford died in 2008.

Dominic writes: ‘He was a remarkable man: a linguist, a traveller, a musician who appeared with performers as varied as Bobbie Gentry and Igor Stravinsky. He was instrumental in building the careers of Domingo, Arroyo, Ricciarelli, Scotto and many more. His lifelong love of the art form that became his profession began as a Westminster schoolboy attending one of the first performances of the new Royal Opera. He believed himself to have been the first baritone to sing Publio in London since 1792, when he sang in a production at Morley College (under Michael Tippet) in the 1950s.

‘He went to work for his father, a Director of Chubb, after leaving the Guildhall and combined a career as a session musician with travelling throughout the Middle East, India and Africa. He claimed to be the man who locked Howard Hughes into his penthouse suite at the Park Lane Hilton.

‘I’m very proud of my father. He lived a full, vigorous and varied life. But I’m most proud of how he fought throughout his illness; how he still maintained a zest for life, love and learning right to the bitter end.’