Hugh Beresford

Hugh Beresford (17 December 1925 – 23 November 2020)[1][2] was a British operatic baritone, later Heldentenor.

Life

Beresford, who was of Irish descent,[3] was born in the port town of Birkenhead in what is now the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in the county of Merseyside. As a child, he sang as a soloist in church concerts at Liverpool Cathedral.[3]

He studied singing at the Royal College of Music in Manchester, at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and had lessons in London, Milan and Düsseldorf with Dino Borgioli, Alfred Piccaver, Melchiorre Luise, Francesco Carino and Wolfgang Steinbrueck. In 1951 he won the Richard Tauber Prize.[1][2]

Beresford had his first engagement at the Landestheater Linz, where he sang the role of Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser as a baritone in 1953.[1][2] In Linz, he sang among others in Ruggiero Leoncavallo's opera Edipo Re, his last and only posthumously premiered stage work, of which a complete recording was also produced in 1960 by Österreichischer Rundfunk with the ensemble of the Linzer Landestheater.[3][4] This was followed by engagements at the Opernhaus Graz and the Theater Augsburg. From 1958 to 1960, he sang at the Opernhaus Wuppertal. In 1960, he became a permanent member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where he remained in the ensemble until 1970 and also began his international career.[1][2] In the 1965/66 season, Beresford sang the title role in Nabucco at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in each of its new productions, where he "found baritone sequences of harrowing, masculine intensity, especially for the despair of the humiliated and benighted king", and Tonio in Bajazzo.[5][6]

From 1960, Beresford made several guest appearances at Covent Garden Opera. In May 1961, he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera, alongside Lisa della Casa, as Mandryka in Arabella. He sang at the opera houses in Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Zurich and also made guest appearances at the Paris Opera. In 1963 and 1966, he took part in the Holland Festival. In the 1963/64 season, he made a guest appearance at the Cologne Opera as Count Tomski in The Queen of Spades[7] In June 1964, he sang his only Vienna premiere at the Vienna State Opera as Mandryka in an Arabella new production conducted by Joseph Keilberth to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Strauss.[3] In 1964 and 1965, he made guest appearances at la Monnaie in Brussels as Rigoletto. In 1966, he sang Mandryka at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice with Melitta Muszely as his partner in the title role, and Wolfram at the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste. From 1967, he appeared frequently at the Hamburg State Opera. In 1968, he made guest appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and in 1970 at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. In 1969, he sang Rigoletto in Amsterdam.

Among his main baritone roles were the Verdi characters Rigoletto, who was his "favourite" role,[3] Nabucco, Germont-père, Posa, Graf Luna, Jago, Ford, as well as Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana, Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni.

In 1970, Beresfeld made the voice and subject change to Heldentenor.[1][2] He sang at the Cologne Opera from 1971 to 1976 and again from 1978 to 1984. In the 1972/73 season and in the 1973/74 season, he sang Florestan in Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera. At the Bayreuth Festival he took on Tannhäuser in 1972–73, although his performance was controversial with audiences.[8][9] In 1975, he appeared at the Scottish Opera in Glasgow in the tenor role of Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos. In the 1979/80 season, he took over Hermann in a Queen of Spades new production at the Theater Hagen.[10] In the 1980/81 season, the title role in an Othello new production followed at the Hagen Theatre.[11] In 1981, he sang Florestan and Erik in The Flying Dutchman in Cologne. In 1981, he made a guest appearance as Siegmund in Die Walküre in Amsterdam. In the 1982/83 season, he made guest appearances as Kalaf in Turandot at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and as the "veritable" title character "with stentorian tones" in Otello at the Theater Heidelberg.[12][13]

As a tenor he sang among others the title role in Peter Grimes, Herod in Salome and Canio.

There are a few recordings of Beresford's voice as a baritone and tenor, among others so-called "cross-sections" of the operas Rigoletto and Margarethe (as Valentin). A live recording of Beresford's performance as Mandryka in Arabella (Venice 1966) was released on CD.[14] There also exists a live recording of a Tannhäuser performance at the Bayreuth Festival in the summer of 1972 with Beresford in the title role under the musical direction of Erich Leinsdorf.[15][16]

After finishing his stage career, Beresford worked as a music educator.[1][2] Among his pupils was Roman Sadnik. He died at the end of November 2020 at the age of 94 in his adopted home of Vienna.[1][2]

References
  1. Opernsänger Hugh Beresford in Wien gestorben. Todesmeldung. ORF.at vom 24. November 2020, retrieved 31 August 2021.
  2. Opernsänger Hugh Beresford in Wien verstorben. Nachruf bei Klassik.com vom 25. November 2020; retrieved 31 August 2021.
  3. Erinnerungen an gestern: Hugh Beresford, ein Wahl-Österreicher. ORF.at from 8 April 2017, retrieved 31 August 2021.
  4. Leoncavallo: Edipo Re (In German). CD review. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  5. Alfons Neukirchen: Kein Angst vor Pathos. Performance review in Opernwelt. January 1966 issue, p. 42.
  6. Alfons Neukirchen: Regie-Reinfall. Performance review in Opernwelt. April 1966 issue, pp. 46–47.
  7. A.N.: Köln: "Pique Dame". Performance review in Opernwelt, June 1964 issue, p. 43.
  8. Heinz Josef Herbort: Opening premiere in Bayreuth: Protest against Tannhäuser's rebellion. Premiere review. In Die Zeit from 28 July 1972.
  9. 'So much hate, so much anger and so much revenge'. Richard Wagner Association International. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  10. Günter Peter: PIQUE DAME. Performance review. In Orpheus, 4 April 1980 issue, pp. 264–265. Excerpt: "As Hermann, HUGH BERESFORD was convincing. He was not only musically sovereign and predestined for the part with a great mastery of vocal expression, he also shaped the role with fascinating psychological sensitivity. He was able to increase his dramatic power without losing the basic lyrical tendency and vocal line. In the duet with Lisa, he impressed with his vocal brilliance; in the final scene, he succeeded in a performance that would have been a credit to him at great opera houses: he not only held out the murderous part without difficulty, but he also gave a gripping interpretation of the transformation from passion for the game to madness. The tenor showed that he has a good intermediate voice with heroic-entertaining power and a secure high register.
  11. Günter Peter: OTHELLO. Aufführungskritik. In Orpheus, 1 April 1981 issue, pp. 20–21. Excerpt: "HUGH BERESFORD in the title role remained astonishingly pale - he could not make pain, jealousy and vengefulness credible. Beresford had exactly the power and treble material that seems indispensable for Othello, but his vocal flexibility was limited. He lacked both gripping forte outbursts and well-declaimed mid-range phrases as well as impressive pianissimo notes. After initial thin and tilted tones, he was able to prove his heroic-tenor qualities, but his timbre seemed less suitable for Verdi."
  12. Wolfgang Denker: TURANDOT. Performance review. In Orpheus, 11 November 1982 issue, p. 917.
  13. Kurt Osterwald: OTHELLO. Performance review. In Orpheus, 12 December 1982 issue, pp. 990–991. Excerpt: "HUGH BERESFORD, seasoned comber in the heroic, is a veritable Othello with stentorian tones, (despite less than optimal evening form, to which some lyricism and show-off tones fell victim) and a detached character, more a soul-wounded than an ecstatically frenzied one."
  14. Strauss Arabella. CD review at Gramophone.co.uk. retrieved 31 August 2021.
  15. Wagner: Tannhäuser - Beresford, Jones, Jones, Weikl, Sotin; Leinsdorf. Bayreuth, 1972. CD-Kritik. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  16. Tannhäuser – 1972. Besetzung und diskografische Angaben. Retrieved 31 August 2021.

Further reading
  • Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon. Vol. 1: Aarden–Castles, Vierte, erweiterte und aktualisierte Auflage. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11598-9, pp. 356–357.
  • Karl Martyniak (ed.): OPERAdat. Interpreten-Lexikon. Sängerlexikon. Beccaria – Bezzubenkov. 2. Auflage, Düsseldorf 1998, p. 12 (mit ausführlichem Rollenverzeichnis).
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