Howell Glynne
Encyclopedia
Howell Glynne was a Welsh
operatic bass. He lived for the latter years of his life in Canada, and taught singing at the University of Toronto
.
He was born Howell Glynne Jones in Swansea
, Wales
in 1904. He studied under Ben Davies
and Reinhold von Warlich. He made his debut in 1931 as Sparafucile in Rigoletto
. He appeared at Covent Garden
and other venues in the 1950s in operas such as Boris Godunov
, Fidelio
, The Bohemian Girl
, Der Rosenkavalier
, Le coq d'or
, Aida
, The Midsummer Marriage
, Die Fledermaus
and La Cenerentola
. He appeared as Fiesco in the English revival of Simon Boccanegra
, with Arnold Matters
in the title role. In 1962 he sang Poo-Bah in a radio broadcast of The Mikado
.
He created the roles of Ford in the first professional performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams
’ Sir John in Love
(April 1946), Joseph Lavatte in Sir Arthur Bliss
's opera The Olympians
(1949), and in Canada, the Hon William McDougall in Harry Somers
’ opera Louis Riel
(1967). He appeared as the Ghost in the first performance in English of Humphrey Searle
's opera Hamlet, in Toronto in February 1969.
His students included Stafford Dean
. His recordings include excerpts from Simon Boccanegra, Merrie England
, The Merry Widow
, and a complete Tosca
(as the Sacristan, to Renata Tebaldi
's Tosca).
His first wife was Lena Williams. They had two children, Enid Mair Jones (born 12/24/1927) and Barbara Jean Jones (born 4/18/30). His second wife was Frieda Irons, a model. Frieda had one son by a former marriage, Michael, who then legally changed his name to Michael Glynne, but was never formally adopted by Howell Glynne.
He died in a car accident in Toronto in 1969. The driver that hit him was drunk.
The Royal Conservatory of Music
(Canada) endows a Howell Glynne Operatic Scholarship.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
operatic bass. He lived for the latter years of his life in Canada, and taught singing at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
.
He was born Howell Glynne Jones in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
in 1904. He studied under Ben Davies
Ben Davies (tenor)
Ben Davies was a Welsh tenor singer, who appeared in opera with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, in operetta and light opera, and on the concert and oratorio platform...
and Reinhold von Warlich. He made his debut in 1931 as Sparafucile in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
. He appeared at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
and other venues in the 1950s in operas such as Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
, Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, Le coq d'or
The Golden Cockerel
The Golden Cockerel is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Its libretto, by Vladimir Belsky, derives from Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, which in turn is based on two chapters of Tales of the Alhambra by...
, Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, The Midsummer Marriage
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, 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard...
, Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
and La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
. He appeared as Fiesco in the English revival of Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
, with Arnold Matters
Arnold Matters
Arnold Matters was an Australian operatic baritone whose career was made mostly in England during the 1930s and 1940s...
in the title role. In 1962 he sang Poo-Bah in a radio broadcast of The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
.
He created the roles of Ford in the first professional performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
’ Sir John in Love
Sir John in Love
Sir John in Love is an opera in four acts by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Vaughan Williams originally titled his opera The Fat Knight...
(April 1946), Joseph Lavatte in Sir Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
's opera The Olympians
The Olympians
The Olympians is an opera in three acts by Arthur Bliss to a libretto by J. B. Priestley, first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 29 September 1949, conducted by Karl Rankl in a production by Peter Brook....
(1949), and in Canada, the Hon William McDougall in Harry Somers
Harry Somers
Harry Stewart Somers, CC was the foremost English-Canadian composer of his period.He was born in middle-class Toronto in 1925 but did not become interested in music until his early teenage years, when he met a doctor and his wife, both pianists, who introduced him to classical music...
’ opera Louis Riel
Louis Riel (opera)
Louis Riel is an opera in three acts by the Canadian composer Harry Somers.This full length opera was written for the 1967 Canadian centennial. It concerns the controversial Métis leader Louis Riel, who was executed in 1885, and is one of Somers' biggest pieces.It is arguably the most famous...
(1967). He appeared as the Ghost in the first performance in English of Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle
Humphrey Searle was a British composer.-Biography:He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying — somewhat hesitantly — with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton...
's opera Hamlet, in Toronto in February 1969.
His students included Stafford Dean
Stafford Dean
Stafford Dean is a British bass opera singer.Stafford Dean was born in Kingswood, Surrey, England. He studied under Howell Glynne and others....
. His recordings include excerpts from Simon Boccanegra, Merrie England
Merrie England (opera)
Merrie England is an English comic opera in two acts by Edward German to a libretto by Basil Hood. The patriotic story concerns love and rivalries at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who is portrayed as jealous of the affection of Sir Walter Raleigh for Bessie Throckmorton. Its sunny depiction of...
, The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
, and a complete Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
(as the Sacristan, to Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
's Tosca).
His first wife was Lena Williams. They had two children, Enid Mair Jones (born 12/24/1927) and Barbara Jean Jones (born 4/18/30). His second wife was Frieda Irons, a model. Frieda had one son by a former marriage, Michael, who then legally changed his name to Michael Glynne, but was never formally adopted by Howell Glynne.
He died in a car accident in Toronto in 1969. The driver that hit him was drunk.
The Royal Conservatory of Music
Royal Conservatory of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music is a music school and performance venue in Toronto, Canada. Other uses of the term include:*The Madrid Royal Conservatory, Spain*The Royal Academy of Music, London, United Kingdom...
(Canada) endows a Howell Glynne Operatic Scholarship.