Geraint Evans

Sir Geraint Llewellyn Evans, (16 February 1922 – 19 September 1992), was a Welsh baritone, noted for operatic roles including Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and the title-roles in Falstaff and Wozzeck

Early life

He was born in Cilfynydd, the son of a coal miner and had a talent for drawing as a child. Upon leaving school he worked as a window dresser for a ladies clothing store in Pontypridd. During World War II he served in the RAF and after the war he worked for the British Forces Radio Network in Hamburg. He then studied music at the Guildhall School of Music in London.

Roles

He made his operatic début as the nightwatchman in Die Meistersinger at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1948, and went on to sing Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro there in 1949.

At Glyndebourne in 1950 he first played the role with which he was, perhaps, most associated: the title role in Verdi’s Falstaff, which he later played in all major opera houses, including Covent Garden (1961, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli), the Vienna Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera (1964 in another Zeffirelli production); he was the first British singer since Eva Turner (Turandot in her case) to be regularly engaged to play a major Italian operatic lead in Italian opera houses including La Scala (1960).

Other roles in which he was celebrated were Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger, Figaro, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Don Pasquale, Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore and Leporello in Don Giovanni. He was an outstanding actor in both comic and tragic roles (Wozzeck).

Evans also appeared in the premières of many modern British operas, including Vaughan Williams's Pilgrim’s Progress (1951); Britten's Billy Budd (1951) and Gloriana (1953), Walton's Troilus and Cressida (1954), and Hoddinott's The Beach of Falesá (1974) and Murder the Magician (1976).

Recordings

Geraint Evans's recordings include the following:

• Falstaff (conducted by Georg Solti)
• Mozart’s Figaro (for both Otto Klemperer and Daniel Barenboim)
• Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Klemperer)
• Ned Keene in Peter Grimes (conducted by the composer)
• Beckmesser (conducted by Herbert von Karajan)
• Dulcamara (conducted by John Pritchard)
• Wozzeck (conducted by Karl Böhm)

He also recorded Ko-Ko in The Mikado (1957), the Duke of Plaza Toro in The Gondoliers (1957) and Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard (1958), for EMI. This Gilbert and Sullivan series was conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.

Honours and retirement

Geraint Evans was knighted in 1969. Other honours conferred on him included:

• Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award (1963)
• Harriet Cohen International Award (1967)
• Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford as a tribute to his services to Welsh music and culture (1979)
• San Francisco Opera Medal (1980)
• Fidelio Medal (1980)

After his retirement from the operatic stage in 1983 (his farewell performances were as Dulcamara), he worked as an operatic stage director.

He died in Aberystwyth on 19 September 1992 at the age of 70.

References

• Programme book, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 25 May 1983.