Thomas Allen has sung his last performance
OperaAn epoch has ended.
Alastair Macaulay reports from Glyndebourne:
Tonight, the British baritone Thomas Allen, aged seventy-nine, announced from the Glyndebourne stage that this had been his final performance; I wish I had been there. He had already informally announced his farewell to friends and few years ago, but Glyndebourne had tempted him back this year into “The Merry Widow”.
It feels as if a significant part of my life has said farewell. Allen was already in the ascendant at Covent Garden when I became a regular there just over fifty years ago. I remember in particular an October 1973 “Simon Boccanegra” starring Peter Glossop, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Boris Christoff in which the connoisseurs singled out Allen as Paolo and Robert Lloyd as Pietro.
I see now how Te Kanawa, Allen, and Lloyd were a golden generation of Covent Garden singers: in 1975, Te Kanawa and he were Marguérite and Valentin, sister and brother, in Covent Garden’s first production for many years of Gounod’s “Faust”. Of them, Allen was the most intelligent, the most versatile, and the most enduring. I’m lucky that I remember him in 1974 as a definitive Moralés (“Carmen”, with Te Kanawa as Micaëla) and definitive Schaunard (“La Bohème”) before he took larger roles; as the 1970s progressed, his first Marcello (“La Bohème”) was in a 1976 cast with Te Kanawa and Luciano Pavarotti; he soon became a classic Count in “Le Nozze di Figaro”, for many people a definitive Don Giovanni, and (with Ann Howells) a luminous Pelléas. He became a hauntingly poignant, brave, forthright Billy Budd; and a marvellously impressive, dependable Ned Keene in Elijah Moshinsky’s great 1975 Covent Garden production of “Peter Grimes”. In 1980, he and Agnes Baltsa made Guglielmo and Dorabella in “Così fan tutte” have more human complexity than Te Kanawa and Stuart Burrows made Fiordiligi and Ferrando.
Later in the last century and well into this century, he became an important Don Alfonso in “Così”. I saw him sing the role of the Marquis of Posa (Verdi’s “Don Carlos”) in three languages – in English at English National Opera, in the opera’s original French at Covent Garden, and in the usual Italian translation in San Francisco. He sang at the New York Metropolitan, La Scala, and many of the foremost international opera houses. Around 1989, I reviewed him (for the “FT”) in Poulenc’s song-cycle “Le Bal masqué” at the Wigmore Hall.
In French, German, Italian, and English, he planted words to eloquent effect. I’m sad I never caught him in two of his most admired roles: Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and (“Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”) Wagner’s Beckmesser. His wit and flair for intelligent characterisation continued this century with such roles as Faninal in “Der Rosenkavalier” and Baron Mirko Zeta (“The Merry Widow”); I saw him sing both at the Met. He also served as the Chancellor of Durham University – a job where his predecessors had included another Covent Garden deity, Margot Fonteyn, and in a city not far from his native Northumberland. A great career; a great artist.
Sunday 28 July
A great artist and a great man. Appropriate that he should bring down the final curtain just as another wonderful British baritone, Ben Luxon, leaves us.
A glorious career, for which we should all be very grateful. He’ll be 80 in September. Birthday greetings in advance and many thanks for the pleasure you’ve given for over half a century.
I believe the BBC have recorded the Glyndebourne Merry Widow for transmission later this year. I look forward to it.
One of the greatest privileges of my life was to hear Tom Allen sing Marcello and the Barber Figaro multiple times from my vantage point in the prompt box at ROH. Some forty years later I can still say I have never heard either role sung as well. He shone in everything he touched. For two minutes of sheer bliss I listen to his recording of Ireland’s Sea Fever.
And now countless young singers are benefitting from his experience and intelligence. long may it continue.
A decent technique but over-rated, particularly in lieder, and with very dubious acting capabilities. There are others I would rather hear – the sadly late Ben Luxon, for one.
I performed with him many times around the world. “Over-rated” and with “dubious acting capabilities” were not phrases ever associated with Thomas…on or off the stage. He was (and is) cherished in every venue by his colleagues and with the audience as well. You may rightly praise Mr. Luxon but you show a dubious lack of proper decorum and class in your comment at this time (or anytime).
Well said
What are you really trying to say? We are all stupid, and your opinion is far superior to everyone else? Dubious acting? Over-rated Lieder singing? He was brilliant in The Beggar’s Opera for Scottish Opera in 1981, and then for his 70th birthday did a very fine performance of Winter reuse at the RNCM in aid of their concert hall in Manchester and, yes, did the whole thing without any of today’s histrionics, from memory and not a note out of place. I then had the joy of meeting him in sad circumstances, along with Dame Janet Baker, at Heather Harper’s funeral, and had the great pleasure in telling him how much I had enjoyed that Winterreise. Such a nice man. It pays to be generous in life.
‘Very dubious acting capabilities.’
In the words of John Patrick McEnroe: you cannot be serious.
Another of his standout roles, which I don’t think is mentioned above, was The Forester, in The Cunning Little Vixen. Absolutely magnificent.
His Beckmesser was a delight. The only problem was that he sung it so well that you wondered whether Eva might have made the wrong choice.
Sang, not sung!
Incorrect. “Sang” is past tense, but “sung” is the past participle, which is the correct form with the auxiliary verb “has.”
Read what I wrote. I originally said sung, which was incorrect – as you yourself have pointed out.
Either word is understood depending on which part of England one comes from – or America! Further and farther, toward and toward, was stood or was standing. Not always wise to start picking holes in people’s English when you know perfectly well what was being said!
While we can regret the fact that we will not hear him again on stage, he has become a very fine director, particularly with Scottish Opera. I especially enjoyed his 2013 production of Don Giovanni, a work he no doubt knows almost backwards. One role I am sure he did not relish was giving the oration at the funeral of Peter Hemmings for whom he had sung in many productions at Los Angeles Opera. Peter died too young in 2001 little more than a year into his retirement. Thomas Allen’s address in the little Dorset church was intensely moving.
What a wonderful singer he was! The very first opera I went to in Leeds (in Leeds City Varieties, as Opera North did not exist) as a student was Billy Budd, his début role, in the early 1970s, and I was hooked on opera!! A stunning performance.
Very happy memories many years later in London (among so many others) of his Beckmesser running his fingers along the curtain rail to check for dust! Enjoy your deserved rest, Tom Allen; such a great servant of music.
Hopefully, he’s only retiring & continues to sing!
Yet another giant announces retirement. Like so many of them, I can remember the time that he was just embarking on his career. How time flies. I wish him many happy years basking in the glory of his career, and I thank him for all the pleasure that his performances have given.
Sir Thomas Allen! My IDOL whom I adore. Was lucky to see him several times on stage! And I had the privilege to meet him in person and even interview him!
https://basiaconfuoco.com/?s=Thomas+Allen
Allen sang Beckmesser in the San Francisco Opera’s Performance of Meistersinger in 2003. He was so funny and clever in that role, most of us onstage could barely keep from laughing. And when he sang, even through his comedy, it was a glorious sound.
One small point, Sir Thomas is from Seaham, County Durham; not Northumberland.
I hope he will continue his work with young singers – generous, supportive, kind and hugely knowledgeable. His masterclasses were not just a masterclass in singing and storytelling but in respecting singers and the audience.
I was lucky enough to work with him in Munich, Il ritorno d’Ulisse. He was a brilliant singer, actor and a total gentleman.
One of the great privileges of seeing opera over the last fifty years has been the presence of Thomas Allen, a singer who never gave a poor or uncommitted performance. I have so many great memories of his Mozart at Glyndebourne and at Covent Garden and so many other roles with other composers, including Wagner. Three, though, stand out for me:
– Billy Budd with Nigel Douglas and Forbes Robinson in Wales
– Prince Andrei in War and Peace with English National Opera
– Onegin in the Serban production in Wales with Josephine Barstow and Mark Ermler conducting
Glory days indeed. May he have a long and fulfilling retirement.
Superb singer and delightful man.
I was lucky enough to be growing up in Cardiff when Sir Thomas sang his first roles with ENO. I was particularly fortunate to hear his first Billy Budd in 1972 – a superb performance in a wonderful production with Nigel Douglas as Vere, Forbes Robinson as Claggart and the incomparable WNO men’s chorus. A superb singer and great artist – I’m not sure what planet lucas is on but I’m very glad we are not cohabiting… Thank you Sir Thomas; very best wishes for a long and fruitful retirement.
I saw most of his performances at the Garden too and particularly remember his Beckmesser as his acting was wonderful. I particularly remember how although not singing and without upstaging anyone he walked around wringing his hands in distress finely observed, and lets also not forget his performances with Welsh National Opera.
He was born in Co. Durham, not Northumberland.
He was a native of County Durham not Northumberland
His Beckmesser with Haitink at Covent Garden back in the 90s was something special. Not a caricature, but a real person.
Maybe he’ll be tempted back again
That should be WNO!!
Absolutely wonderful baritone. Though young at the time, I still well remember him at the ROH in Le Nozze di Figaro and La Boheme. One of the best opera singers of his era without doubt.
I saw my first opera at 11, at a WNO visit to Bristol. “Eugene Onegin” with Thomas Allen and Rita Cullis in the leads. That single performance has led to an immense amount of pleasure throughout my life as I explored both the repertoire and the venues performing it. I’m grateful to Sir Thomas for a lifetime hobby, and wish him well for the retirement.
We went to the Merry Widow a month ago to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary. The show in the new translation was wonderful, with Sir Thom being brilliant, and very funny indeed. I don’t believe he will completely retire! There is far too much energy and joyful talent there, and his voice seems in excellent shape to me….