English tenor dies in Vienna
mainThe opera singer Hugh Beresford has died in his adopted city at the age of 94.
Beresford won the Richard Tauber Prize as a baritone in 1951 and decided to continue his studies in Austria. He made his debut in Linz in 1953 as Wolfram in Tannhäuser and in 1960 became a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 1970 he transitioned to become a tenor, singing the role of Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio. That same year, he made his Bayreuth debut as Tannhäuser.
Just an anecdote: only yesterday I was looking through some holiday postcards received years ago, and one from my mother in Italy in August 1982 concluded, ” Do you know Hugh Beresford, Wagner tenor? He was here in the hotel [Moderno Majestic, Cattolica] till this morning—really brown after 3 weeks. Lives in Cologne.” I looked him up and immediately found this post. Quite a coincidence.
According to the best obituary I have found (in the Wiener Zeitung), he had started singing in Vienna by the time I was there in 1972, but I don’t remember him from the 50 or so operas I went to. I haven’t dug my cast lists out of the loft, but, to go by his ‘Winterstürme’, I’d probably remember if I did hear him!