Death of a Vienna-trained English tenor, 93

We have been notified of the death on December 15 of Nigel Douglas, a noted English tenor with a richly varied career.

Trained in Vienna in the 1950s, he shortened his name from Nigel Douglas Leigh Pemberton in order to fit onto placards at the Volksoper, where he sang for five years. He then returned hom to work in most of the British companies, mastering 80 roles.

Retiring at 72, he wrote two books about tenors and indulged in watching cricket.

His greatest excitement? ‘Working with Benjamin Britten. He cast me in the role of the young tenor in Owen Wingrave, the opera he wrote for TV. We did it on television in 1971 and on stage at Covent Garden in 1973, when I first came back to London. He came up on stage at the end of the performance and shook my hand and a lot of people said to me afterwards, what did he say to you? And what he said, word for word, was jolly well done old thing, jolly well done! He was just a lovely, lovely man and terribly kind to me. He was my absolute hero because there was no such a thing as British opera until Benjamin Britten came along.’

BBCTV publicity photo