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The English tenor, Gerald English, studied at the Royal College of Music, and was a pupil of Jennifer Ryan.
Gerald English could be characterised in the fifties first as a concert singer of high rank. During 1968-1969 he was with others in Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Brussels, Stockholm, Rome, Cologne, Amsterdam and Lisbon in a successful concert program, which included above all works from the Baroque era, in particular of J.S. Bach, and on the other hand included modern composers (Igor Stravinsky, Luigi Dallapiccola). Until 1970 he appeared in Vienna, Stockholm and Barcelona and sang in the same year at the opera of Luettich the title role in Idomeneo by W.A. Mozart. He appeared also at the Covent Garden Opera London, at the Sadler's Wells Opera and at the Festival of Glyndebourne (1962-1964 small parts in Monteverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea), and in 1963 at the Grand Opéra Paris (as Andres in Alban Berg's Wozzeck), but the emphasis of his artistic affecting was situated the area of the concert singing. Again and again he had a grateful public with its extended tours in England as in North America. As a Lieder singer he was considered particularly as a great interpreter of the songs of Gabriel Fauré.
From 1960 to 1977 Gerald English worked as a professor at the Royal College of Music in London, and since 1977 he was Director of the Victoria College of The Arts in Melbourne, where his activity as concert and opera singer was centred.
Recordings: HMV (Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi), Harmonia Mundi (J.S. Bach Cantatas, The Pilgrim's Progress by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Te Deum by H. Purcell, Songs of Dowland, Ward und Purcell), Vox (Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria by Monteverdi). |
