Geraint Evans, who remembers?
OperaThe tremendous Welsh bass-baritone, a cornerstone of the post-War Covent Garden company and a role model for Bryn Terfel, was born 100 years ago this week.
He was born in Pontypridd on February 1922 and died 70 years later, a knight of the realm with a grand memorial service in Westminster Abbey.
Nothing on the wretched Royal Opera House website.
I remember him very well. Wonderful singer and worthy ambassador for the great Welsh vocal tradition.
Dear, dear Geraint. So fine in Mozart and so hopelessly out of his depth with Verdi. A magnificent Figaro and Papageno but oh what a mess he made of Rigoletto – I’m not sure he even got through one performance before Peter Glossop was brought in to replace him. It was the tessitura which did for him, you see, it just lay too high for him. Look you, one hundred years, happy memories.
‘so hopelessly out of his depth with Verdi’: not so! In Rigoletto maybe, but his Falstaff was outstanding.
I rememember his masterclass of falsaff with happy memories
Saw his masterly Falstaff several times. Thought he was magnificent.
But a classic Falstaff.
He famously apologised to the audience after his one (and only) performance of Rigoletto, saying he shouldn’t have attempted the role. However his Falstaff was a perfect characterisation, as were the Mozart roles, Beckmesser and – not to be forgotten – so was his Wozzeck. I hadn’t realised that he died relatively young.
He also did it on stage for the Dublin DGOS in about 1960 – not too bad as I recall it but not really his kind of thing
Outstanding Wozzeck at the Garden.
I first saw him as Leporello at Covent Garden (1975 or 1976) but I treasure his Falstaff. If he was “out of his depth” with Falstaff, give me more…
No one in Wales EVER says look you.
Sir Geraint was ill – he’d already been having voice problems in rehearsal. The probable cause was a virus infection.
A great artist – an opera singer who could really act! His TV coaching classes were amazing!
Those of us who love great singing and great acting will never forget Sir Geraint Evans.
Sir Geraint played such a major role in post WW2 opera in Britain that it would be good to see his 100th celebrated by an exhibition or concert. Perhaps the BBC could be persuaded to broadcast again the recording of his farewell concert which also featured his friends Stuart Burrows and Elizabeth Vaughan? I believe it was an Eistedfodd event and Sir Geraint was given a self portrait as a gift.
Remember him well….He magnificently sang the title role on Solti’s first recording of Falstaff.
50 years ago, almost to the day, I saw Sir Geraint’s incomparable Falstaff at The Met with a stellar cast including Renata Tebaldi, Regina Resnik, Jeannette Pilou, Luigi Alva, and Kostas Paskalis. Christoph von Dohnany made his Met debut that night. Fantastic evening!
Unforgettable Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne in 1960 with Ernest Blanc, Geraint Evans, Sutherland, Ligabue, Freni and Richard Lewis. It was my first visit to Glyndebourne.
Typical of The ROH these days. Sir David Webster and Sir John Tooley always honoured past company members but for the last 20 years it’s a case of when you’re gone your forgotten.”
Wonderful as Beckmesser in San Francisco.
And on Karajan’s recording – although I seem to vaguely recall that he was not the conductor’s choice, but of the producer’s.
Still, things did turn out well, and one should note that Sir Geraint did work with Karajan in other operas (namely Don Giovanni and Marriage of Figaro).
The Met and it’s magazine Opera News has completely ignored Renata Tebaldi’s 100th on February 5th, too.
I certainly do remember Geraint Evans. As a first or second year music student in Philadelphia (1968 or 1969), I organized a field trip for a few classmates, and our composer professor, to New York, for a performance of “Wozzeck” at the Metropolitan Opera, with Evans, and Karl Bohm in the pit. I think Evelyn Lear was Marie, but Mr. Evans was such a standout on that stage that all the other singers in the production are but hazy images. No Wozzeck since has eclipsed that for me.
I saw him in “Wozzeck” at Covent Garden. Outstanding.
Sir Geraint Evans sang many roles at Lyric Opera of Chicago. In 1978, there was a memorable moment in Don Pasquale when he banged on a table and the whole back wall of the set collapsed. After a short break the performance continued. At subsequent performances he made a great comic element of pretending to hit the table but not actually doing so to prevent further damage to the set.
Yes, I was there that night. He was on stage with Alfredo Kraus when the set collapsed. He was a great favorite in Chicago…Dulcamara, Beckmesser, Balstrode…great memories.
I remember his wonderful Dulcamara in ROH. Shame they missed his centennial.
Absolutely
And the ROH management commissioned the production for him
Saw him as Balstrode in “Peter Grimes” at the S.F. Opera in the late 1970’s. Fantastic! That was the first opera I ever attended. My tuba teacher, Floyd Cooley, was playing in the pit. He had a long career with the S.F. Symphony, but was also playing in the opera orchestra at that time.
Mr Lebrecht,
Please stop making us remember this kind of great true artists!
Makes me feel so sad…
It was my first ‘Falstaff.’ May 5th, 1970. The Royal Opera was performing ‘Falstaff’ and ‘Don Carlo’ at the Staatsoper in Munich. Sir Geraint was Falstaff. Solti was conducting. What an evening for a new, teenage opera-goer! Regrettably it was the only time I was to hear him in live performance.
Nothing on the ROH website? That’s appalling. Sir Geraint was a proud Welshman and is one of the greats. Stuart Burrows is overlooked too. There’s a wonderful recording of him singing “Lensky’s Aria” on YouTube with Solti.
In 50 years of opera-going I have never heard a better Lensky than Stuart Burrows. His Ferrando was also wonderful.
Glad so many knew him. I only have a few London LPs. One cover has about 6 or 8 color photos in full makeup. Speaking of Welsman I saw TomJones interview recently. Quite amusing.
Well done for recognising this anniversary. Having worked with Geraint as a student (TV Cosi masterclass) and as a pro on stage and on TV operas (incl. Hoddinott’s What the Old Man Does is Always Right) he was always a great inspiration and always right.
Fun tip. Evans has a lovely cameo as the Revd Eli Jenkins in George Martin’s wonderful 50th-anniversary version for EMI of “Under Milk Wood”.
This is the performance I saw live in 1984
https://youtu.be/_PbwbCHI39Q
He was amazing. I had the huge privilege of hearing him live as Mozart’s Figaro two years running at the Edinburgh Festival under Daniel Barenboim, with Fischer-Dieskau as Almaviva and Judith Blegen/Ileana Cotrubas as Susanna, rest of cast just as stellar. He was brilliant. And I wish someone would post his Handel–Saul, Judas Maccabeus, I would if I still had the LP player and the tech chops. Love love love him.
Coming to opera in the mid 1970s I was just in time to enjoy his last performances of Leporello, Dulcamara and Falstaff, all wonderful.
Diolch Geraint.
As well as all the roles that have been mentioned, I also love him in the William Mathias Elegy for a Prince.
I saw Sir Geraint at Covent Garden as Beckmesser in the 80s. Even though I was sitting in the back row of the Amphitheatre, his acting in Act 3, when he discovers what he thinks is a new song by Sachs, was unforgettably well projected, in perfect time with Wagner’s amazing score. He could sing too….
That’s appalling. I remember him so well. A wonderful Leporello and a voice of pure honey when needed.