Alberto Remedios (27 February 193511 June 2016) was a British

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

tic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

, especially noted for his interpretations of Wagner's

heldentenor A heldentenor (; English: ''heroic tenor''), earlier called tenorbariton, is an operatic tenor voice, most often associated with Wagnerian repertoire. It is distinct from other tenor '' fächer'' by its endurance, volume, and dark timbre, which ...

roles.

Biography

Alberto Remedios was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and began his working life as a shipyard welder. He left school at 15 to play football semi-professionally for New Brighton at Wallasey. He also studied singing with Edwin Francis, who also taught Rita Hunter. Following

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

, he was offered a place at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

with

Clive Carey Francis Clive Savill Carey CBE (30 May 188330 April 1968), known as Clive Carey, was an English baritone, singing teacher, composer, opera producer and folk song collector. Biography Clive Carey was born at Sible Hedingham, Essex, in 1883. He ...

, where he won the Queen's Prize in 1957. He sang a wide variety of roles with the

Sadler's Wells Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English. ...

—the forerunner of

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

—including Alfredo in '' La traviata'', the title role in Gounod's ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'', Samson in Saint-Saëns' ''

Samson and Delilah Samson and Delilah are Biblical figures. Samson and Delilah may also refer to: In music * ''Samson and Delilah'' (opera), an opera by Camille Saint-Saëns * ''Samson & Delilah'' (album), released in 2013 by V V Brown * "Samson and Delilah" (t ...

'', Bacchus in ''

Ariadne auf Naxos (''Ariadne on Naxos''), Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one of the work's ...

'' and Max in ''

Der Freischütz ' ( J. 277, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 18 ...

.'' Remedios went to Australia with the Sutherland- Williamson company in 1965. The company led by Richard Bonynge included Lauris Elms, John Alexander, and Luciano Pavarotti. The offer to tour came about by chance. Remedios, dining in an Italian restaurant in London was offered a free meal if he sang; fortuitously Joan Sutherland was also in the restaurant that night. The tour included '' La traviata'', ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...

'', ''

Semiramide ''Semiramide'' () is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy ''Semiramis'', which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Assyria. The opera was first performed at La Feni ...

'' and ''

''. A recording of Remedios singing Alfredo in ''La traviata'', with Joan Sutherland's Violetta, was released by Desiree Records in 2014. He is especially remembered for his performances in

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, especially as Siegfried in the

Glen Byam Shaw Glencairn Alexander "Glen" Byam Shaw, CBE (13 December 1904 – 29 April 1986) was an English actor and theatre director, known for his dramatic productions in the 1950s and his operatic productions in the 1960s and later. In the 1920s and 1930 ...

production of The Ring, conducted by

Reginald Goodall Sir Reginald Goodall (13 July 1901 – 5 May 1990) was an English conductor and singing coach noted for his performances of the operas of Richard Wagner and for conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten. Early life Goodall ...

. He was the first English tenor to sing Siegfried at Covent Garden since

Walter Widdop Walter Widdop (19 April 1892 – 6 September 1949) was a British operatic tenor who is best remembered for his Richard Wagner, Wagnerian performances. His repertoire also encompassed works by Giuseppe Verdi, Verdi, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Leonca ...

in the 1930s. These performances were recorded in 1973, preserving Remedios' partnerships with Norman Bailey as

Wotan (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelun ...

and Rita Hunter as

Brünnhilde Brunhild, also known as Brunhilda or Brynhild ( non, Brynhildr , gmh, Brünhilt, german: Brünhild , label= Modern German or ), is a female character from Germanic heroic legend. She may have her origins in the Visigothic princess Brunhilda ...

. He was also memorable as Walther von Stolzing in the ground-breaking 1968 Sadler's Wells '' The Mastersingers of Nuremberg'', also conducted by Reginald Goodall. Most remarkable of all was the occasion when Remedios, despite a slight chest infection, and due to the illness of another singer, played the roles of both Siegmund in ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...

'', the title role in '' Siegfried'', and also Siegfried in ''

Götterdämmerung ' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as ...

'', within a complete cycle of the Ring during one week, these being at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool performances of the tour. Remedios sang the role of Mark in the first recording of Tippett's ''

The Midsummer Marriage ''The Midsummer Marriage'' is an opera in three acts, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett. The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, on 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard. The reception of the opera was controversial, o ...

''.Philips 670 3027: Alberto Remedios; Joan Carlyle; Raimund Herincx;

Elizabeth Harwood Elizabeth Harwood (27 May 1938 – 22 June 1990) was an English lyric soprano. After a music school, she enjoyed an operatic career lasting for over two decades and worked with such conductors as Colin Davis and Herbert von Karajan. She was ...

; Stuart Burrows; Helen Watts; Covent Garden Chorus and Orchestra; Colin Davis, conductor. Kemp, Ian, "Record Reviews: ''The Midsummer Marriage'' (May 1971). ''The Musical Times'', 112 (1539): pp. 454-55. Remedios performed in many of the world's leading operatic venues, including the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. He was the subject of '' This Is Your Life'' in 1976 when he was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ ...

Recordings

* Tippett: ''

'' Mark, in the first recording . *Excerpts from

, La Traviata,

La Sonnambula ''La sonnambula'' (''The Sleepwalker'') is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the ''bel canto'' tradition by Vincenzo Bellini set to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ''ballet-pantomime'' written by Eu ...

. Joan Sutherland,

, Monica Sinclair, Lauris Elms; Luciano Pavarotti, John Alexander, Alberto Remedios, Opthof, Rouleau, Cross, others. Sutherland-Williamson Grand Opera Company Orchestra and Chorus, Bonynge/Weibel. Desirée Records CD 2965 (Norbeck, Peters & Ford, dist., 802-868-9300) *

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become o ...

: '' Carmen'' (In English) - Pring, Remedios, Curphey, Chard;

Braithwaite Braithwaite is a village in the northern Lake District, in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies just to the west of Keswick and to the east of the Grisedale Pike ridge, in the Borough of Allerdale. It forms part of the ...

. London, 1975 * Cilea: '' Adriana Lecouvreur'' (In English) - Carlyle, Remedios, Bainbridge; Erede. London, 1971 *

Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884) ...

: '' Manon'' (In English) - Harwood, Remedios, Chard, Blackburn, Dowling; Mackerras. London, 1974 *

: ''

'' (In English) - Hunter,

June June is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the second of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the third of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. June contains the summer solstice in ...

, Bailey, Remedios, Howard, Grant; Goodall. ENO, 1970 *

: ''

'' (In English) - Hunter, Remedios, Grant, Bailey, Hammond-Stroud; Goodall. ENO, 1971 *

: ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

'' (In English) - Remedios, Curphey, Turner, Sharpe, Herincx, Grant; Braithwaite. London, 1971 *

: '' Siegfried'' (In English) - Remedios, Hunter, Garrard, Dempsey, Hammond-Stroud, Grant, Masterson; Goodall. London, 1973 *

: '' The Ring Cycle'' (In English) Hunter, Remedios, Bailey/Garrard; Goodall/ Mackerras. London, 1970- 1973 *

: ''

'' sung in English; Lohengrin – Alberto Remedios, Elsa – Karen Bureau, Ortrud – Nance Grant, Telramund – Geoffrey Chard, King Henry – Noel Mangin, Herald – David Brennan;

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...

, conductor

Richard Divall Richard Sydney Divall (9 September 1945 – 15 January 2017) was an Australian conductor and musicologist. After nine years as a music producer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, from 1972 on the invitation of Dame Joan Hammond he bec ...

. Australian Radio Broadcast November 1985. CD91241 * Hector Berlioz: '' Les Troyens'' – sung in English; Margreta Elkins (Cassandre),

Robert Allman Robert Edward Joseph Allman (8 June 19274 December 2013) was an Australian operatic bass-baritone. Biography Robert Allman was born in Melbourne in 1927. He studied in Paris and sang at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden for three seasons from 1 ...

(Chorèbe), Alberto Remedios (Enée), Suzanne Johnston (Ascagne), Lauris Elms (Didon), Heather Begg (Anna), Richard Greager (Iopas/Helenus), Noel Mangin (Priam/Narbal), John Wood (Panthée);

, Melbourne Chorale & Victoria State Opera Chorus, Richard Divall

Personal life, retirement, and death

He married his second wife, Judy Hosken, an Australian dancer, in 1965. Remedios performed regularly in Australia – he sang in concert performances of ''Götterdämmerung'' at the Sydney Opera House in the late 1970s with Rita Hunter, conducted by Sir

Charles Mackerras Mackerras in 2005 Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Engli ...

, and sang

for

Victoria State Opera The Victoria State Opera (VSO), based in Melbourne, Australia, was founded in Melbourne in 1962. The company, founded by Leonard Spira, was a move into grand opera by the then amateur Gilbert and Sullivan-oriented Victorian Light Opera Co. The n ...

in 1985 conducted by

, in a production by

August Everding August Everding (; 31 October 1928; Bottrop, Germany – 26 January 1999; Munich) was a German opera director and administrator. He studied at the Universities of Bonn and Munich, where launching his career in the 1950s. He was a member of the R ...

. His brother Ramon also had a singing career as a tenor; on many occasions they both appeared in performances by English National Opera of '' The Mastersingers.'' In 1999 Remedios emigrated to Sydney, Australia. He died in Sydney on 11 June 2016, aged 81.

Awards

*Queen's Prize,

, 1957. *First prize in the Bulgarian International Opera Contest, 1963. *Appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE), 1981.

References

External links

The Royal Opera House website tributeSeen and Heard International tributeEnglish National Opera tribute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Remedios, Alberto 1935 births 2016 deaths English operatic tenors 20th-century British male opera singers 21st-century British male opera singers Alumni of the Royal College of Music Musicians from Liverpool Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English people of Spanish descent English emigrants to Australia