Gerald English (1925-2019) *93

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was an English tenor. He performed operatic and concert repertoire, was a recording artist, and has been an academic.

He gave many premiere performances of works by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Hans Werner Henze, Benjamin Britten, Michael Tippett and Andrew Ford, often under their own direction. He has also sung under the batons of Ernest Ansermet, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Thomas Beecham. He has sung opera for the Glyndebourne Festival, The Royal Opera at Covent Garden, La Scala and in Sydney, Adelaide, Manchester, Edinburgh, Florence, Rome, Paris, Buenos Aires, Vienna, Barcelona, and Sadler's Wells. He also performed in concerts in America, as well as in cities like Brussels, Rome, Cologne, Stockholm, Lisbon, Amsterdam or Rio de Janeiro. Gerald Alfred English was born in 1925. His father, a chemist, wanted him to be a mathematician. His family moved to France when he was two years old, and he lived in northern France for 14 years. In World War II he spent four years in military intelligence, where he spent much of his time listening to secret German communications from a base on the bleak Yorkshire moors. One of his colleagues during that time was the composer Peter Wishart. He became a student at the Royal College of Music. At age 25, he became a member of the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir and, shortly thereafter, the Deller Consort, where his continental upbringing proved of value in singing idiomatic French. During this time, he also began to build a reputation as a recitalist, gaining particular authority as an interpreter of the songs of Gabriel Fauré.

He sang many opera performances in a wide-ranging repertory that covered several centuries. He was as comfortable and authentic in Monteverdi as he was in the music of his own time. He has had many years of experience in music of the Elizabethan period.

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