The Welsh tenor Ryland Davies, who has died aged 80, was famous for many of his profession as a golden-toned singer of Mozart, Rossini and the lighter Donizetti roles, although latterly of extra vibrant character components.
He had had no musical coaching earlier than he went to the Royal Manchester School of Music (now the RNCM) on the age of 17, however the high quality of his voice, and specifically his phrasing, was observed by his instructor Frederic Cox. By the point he entered the Glyndebourne refrain two years later, he had discovered the rudiments: “I may learn my treble clef and I may observe the conductor.”
Nearly instantly he was summoned again to his native south Wales to make his debut, in 1964, as Almaviva in The Barber of Seville at Welsh Nationwide Opera. He continued to sing within the Glyndebourne refrain till 1966 and returned to sing frequently there in future years, the place his roles included Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Ferrando (Così Fan Tutte), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Lysander (A Midsummer Night time’s Dream) and Don Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro).
In all these roles he impressed with the sweetness and Italianate high quality of his gentle voice, his easy projection and mellifluous legato. His first Ferrando was with Scottish Opera in 1969, by which period his physique was enhanced by what he referred to as “early-success-girth”, skilfully camouflaged within the Turkish bathtub scene in Anthony Besch’s staging. With Elizabeth Harwood and Janet Baker because the sisters, the manufacturing was a triumph that marked a turning level in his profession.
He then sang the position in Italian for the primary time at Glyndebourne in the identical yr and made his Covent Backyard debut, additionally in 1969, as Hylas, the homesick younger sailor in Les Troyens, adopted in fast succession by Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Fenton (Falstaff), Ferrando and Almaviva. In 1970 he appeared on the Salzburg competition as Cassio in Verdi’s Otello and in addition made his US debut at San Francisco, once more as Ferrando, the beginning of his collaboration with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. It was as Ferrando, too, that he made his debuts on the Paris Opera (1974) and the Metropolitan (1975).
The latter Così additionally marked the Metropolitan debut, within the position of Dorabella, of Anne Howells, whom he had married in 1966. That relationship resulted in a divorce in 1981, to which, along with the stress of his burgeoning profession, Davies attributed the vocal breakdown that occurred within the early Eighties. With the assistance of a former faculty good friend, now instructor, Patrick McGuigan, he managed to get better his approach in 1985–86, nevertheless it then took one other 5 years earlier than his profession was absolutely on monitor once more.
Appearances as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at English Nationwide Opera (1986) and within the title position of Weber’s Oberon at Montpellier and on the Châtelet (1987) have been among the many first indicators of that recuperation. By 1994 he realised he wanted to chop again on the educating he had in the meantime undertaken with the RNCM in 1987. He resigned from that establishment in 1994, however continued to show on the Royal School of Music (1989–2009) and later on the Royal Academy.
Returning to Glyndebourne in 1988 as Tichon in Janáček’s Kát’a Kabanová, he was happy to have the ability to put his new-found vocal energy to good use taking part in, in Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s manufacturing, a weak character who’s however of dramatic significance.
He was much less comfortable as Jeník in The Bartered Bride, which didn’t go well with his voice so effectively. Additionally within the solid was Stafford Dean, now married to Howells; Davies himself was remarried to the soprano Deborah Rees. Any rigidity that there may need been between the 2 males was masked by their good-natured aping of Jani Strasser (the one-time musical director of Glyndebourne) and the conductor John Pritchard, as they’d accomplished when choristers collectively for the corporate.
Right now too he started to tackle extra character roles, such because the Rev Horace Adams in Peter Grimes, Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Duke in Massenet’s Chérubin, taking part in with relish the “fussy-arsed little chap” who bosses all people round. The latter position noticed his return to Covent Backyard in 1994, the identical yr by which he returned to Cardiff to sing the Podestà in La Finta Giardiniera.
Born in Cwm, Ebbw Vale, to Gethin Davies, a steelworker, and his spouse Joan (nee Baker), he gained his first evaluation in Opera journal in 1963, whereas nonetheless a scholar in Manchester, in one of many title roles of Gluck’s Paride ed Elena: “His Paris, although effectively sung, was deprived by a blond Beatle wig that gave him an unromantic resemblance to Harpo Marx.”
Whereas singing with the Glyndebourne refrain his first solo position was because the Main Domo to the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Probably the most memorable night of the run was the one on which Montserrat Caballé, the Marschallin, turned to him and demanded a cognac.
Exiting stage left, he was met by an alarmed stage assistant, who was dispatched to the Lengthy Bar to fetch one. Returning to the stage, he delivered the cognac to Caballé with the phrases “Ecco, Signora!” Whispering “Grazie, grazie!”, she turned her again on the viewers, drained the glass and continued in her position: “Abtreten die Leut!” (“Ship everybody away.”)
In tandem along with his operatic profession he maintained a distinguished profile at dwelling and overseas with solo roles in a variety of oratorios and different sacred works, together with Bach’s B minor Mass, St John in Elgar’s The Kingdom, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and The Seasons, Obadiah in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Tippett’s A Little one of Our Time.
In his youth he was a eager rugby participant and gained a schoolboys’ worldwide cap for Wales in opposition to England and Scotland (1957–58) on the age of 14.
Each on the British conservatoires at which he taught and on the Reina Sofía Faculty of Music in Madrid, he was a sort and devoted instructor – his most notable college students included Ian Bostridge, Jacques Imbrailo, David Butt Philip, Andrew Staples and Sam Furness.
He’s survived by Deborah and their daughter, Emily.
