Thomas Round
Encyclopedia
Thomas Round is a retired English opera
singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor
roles of the Savoy Operas
and in grand opera
.
During World War II
, Round served in the RAF as a flying instructor for the United States Air Force
, also singing in concerts. He sang leading tenor roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan
operas for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
from 1946 to 1949. He next spent six years in the 1950s singing opera and operetta
with Sadler's Wells Opera
. From 1958 to 1964, Round again performed mostly with the D'Oyly Carte company. He co-founded a new ensemble, Gilbert and Sullivan for All
, with which he toured extensively, singing and serving as one of the company's directors. He also broadcast on radio and television and is heard on many recordings.
(now in Cumbria
but at that time part of Lancashire
). On leaving school he started working as an apprentice joiner. In 1936 he joined the police force and was stationed in Lancaster. In 1938 he married Alice (d. 30 December 2010) at St Paul's Church, Barrow, and the couple had one son, Ellis.
During World War II
, Round became a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force
and was later sent to Texas
as a flying instructor for the United States Air Force
. During this time he began his performing career, later recalling, "I was doing a lot of singing every Sunday in churches all over Texas. I had my own plane so I would fly down 300 miles to San Antonio for an 11 a.m. service, I would sing and then I would fly back home in the evening." He was offered the chance to appear as a guest in a college production in Dallas, playing Canio in I Pagliacci. "It was my first time in any type of production but I loved it." Round was offered a place at a music school in New York, but turned it down in order to return home to England.
tenor roles, appearing occasionally as Nanki-Poo in The Mikado
. In September of the same year, he became the company's principal tenor, for the next three years, playing the roles of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore
, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance
, Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe
, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, and Luiz in The Gondoliers
.
Round left the D'Oyly Carte company in 1949, and appeared in a musical, playing the young Johann Strauss
in Waltzes from Vienna, and an ice show, Rose Marie on Ice
. Next, he sang for six years with Sadler's Wells Opera
. He appeared in some comic character parts such as Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro
, but generally took the leading romantic tenor roles, including Tamino in The Magic Flute
, Jeník in The Bartered Bride
, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni
. He played Danilo in the first production by a major British opera company of The Merry Widow
, in which The Musical Times
found him "dashingly stylish". He also played principal roles in I Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi
, Lilac Time
, Eugene Onegin
, and less-frequently staged works including Rimsky Korsakov's The Snow Maiden
, Wolf-Ferrari
's School for Fathers
, and John Gardner
's adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence
.
During his Sadler's Wells years, Round undertook guest engagements elsewhere. He created the tenor lead, Nils, in the world premiere of Delius
's Irmelin under Sir Thomas Beecham
in Oxford
in 1953. The critic Eric Blom
wrote, "Thomas Round as the hero was particularly good. He should soon make a Siegfried
, though perhaps only the young Siegfried to begin with." Also in 1953, he appeared in the film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan. The following year, he rejoined D'Oyly Carte as a guest artist for a short period, playing Prince Hilarion in a new production of Princess Ida
at the Savoy Theatre
. In 1955 he and the young Heather Harper
played the leads in a televised version of La traviata
.
Round returned to D'Oyly Carte, on tour in 1958 in Dublin, playing his old roles of Frederic, Nanki-Poo, adding Ralph, and, for the first time, Marco in The Gondoliers, the following season. During the company's summer break in 1958, Round earned more good notices as Count Danilo with Sadler's Wells in The Merry Widow at the London Coliseum. In 1960 and 1961 he assumed a new role, Colonel Fairfax, in The Yeomen of the Guard
also appearing in that role for the City of London Festival production at the Tower of London
in 1962. In 1961, he performed more new roles, as Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore
and Cyril in Princess Ida
, participating in 1962 in the company's extensive North American tour. By 1963, Philip Potter
had taken over the parts of Frederic and Nanki-Poo, but Round added the role of the Defendant in Trial by Jury
and resumed singing Tolloller in Iolanthe. In 1964, he again left the D'Oyly Carte company. He told The Times
, "For the first time in my career I am not under contract to anyone, and I find this quite exciting."
, founded their own ensemble, Gilbert and Sullivan for All
, around the time that he left D'Oyly Carte. In 1969, when Adams left D'Oyly Carte, the partners began to tour extensively with this new company in the British Isles, the Far East, Australasia, and North America, including three Hollywood Bowl
concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
. To enable to company to appear in small venues, Sullivan's orchestrations were adapted and arranged for smaller forces than D'Oyly Carte employed. Other regular members of the ensemble were Valerie Masterson
and Gillian Knight
. Round sang the roles of Box in Cox and Box
, the Defendant in Trial, Ralph in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic in Pirates, Tolloller in Iolanthe, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore, Colonel Fairfax in Yeomen, and Marco in The Gondoliers, as well as acting as a director for the company. He and Adams continued to appear in Gilbert and Sullivan into the 1990s.
During his Gilbert and Sullivan for All years, Round also appeared as Arthur Sullivan on tour with Donald Adams in Tarantara! Tarantara!, a musical about the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership by Ian Taylor. In the 1970s, Round and Adams presented a television series about the Savoy operas, devoting each programme to an individual opera.
radio, and his television performances included several operas, listed in the filmography below. In November 1995, he celebrated fifty years as a professional singer, with a three-day opera event in the Lake District
at which Adams also appeared.
From 1980 to 1997, Round took up sailing as a hobby, and he and his wife moved to the Lancashire
coast in 1988. Throughout the years, Round has maintained his interest in Gilbert and Sullivan and their works. The nonagenarian now lives at Bolton-le-Sands
and has, for many years, been president of the Marton Operatic Society. Until February 2006, Round was Honorary President of the University of York
Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He appears most years at the annual International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
performing, lecturing and meeting with Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts.
and Round recorded The Merry Widow
for HMV. The Gramophone described his Danilo as "first class ... with a fresh youthful voice and an easy and appropriately racy style." This was followed by Lilac Time
released in 1960.
With the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Decca Records
, Round recorded Hilarion (1955), Frederic (1958), Nanki-Poo (1958), Ralph Rackstraw (1960), Tolloller (1960), Marco (1961), Richard Dauntless (1962), the Defendant (1964), and Captain Fitzbattleaxe in Utopia Limited (1964 excerpts). In 2008 the critic of The Gramophone, John Steane, wrote that, of Gilbert and Sullivan tenors, Round was "surely the best we've had."
In the 1970s, Round also recorded and filmed his roles with Gilbert and Sullivan for All. These were complete recordings of Trial by Jury and Cox and Box, and potted excerpts (as much as would fit on two sides of an LP record) of seven others, which have since been reissued on CD. In 1996, when the Gilbert and Sullivan for All films were reissued on video by the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, Round recorded introductions for each. The Gilbert and Sullivan for All team also recorded a miscellaneous LP, including Valerie Masterson and Gillian Knight as Princesses Nekaya and Kalyba in an excerpt from Utopia, Limited
, and Round as Antonio in The Gondoliers. With Donald Adams, he recorded a musical documentary, The Story of Gilbert & Sullivan, written by Dr. Thomas Heric. He also made two recordings of lesser-known Sullivan music.
For Pearl Records, Round recorded a collection of Victorian ballads, which was chosen by The Times
as one of the "Critics' choice, records of the year" for 1974, an eclectic collection, Songs You Love (1976), and he participated in a recording of Edwardian music. In 2008, he released a CD of twelve Irish songs called Thomas Round sings Irish Songs, recorded when he was principal tenor with Sadler's Wells Opera.
Round's filmography is as follows:
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
roles of the Savoy Operas
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
and in grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Round served in the RAF as a flying instructor for the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, also singing in concerts. He sang leading tenor roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
from 1946 to 1949. He next spent six years in the 1950s singing opera and operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
with Sadler's Wells Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
. From 1958 to 1964, Round again performed mostly with the D'Oyly Carte company. He co-founded a new ensemble, Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All was a touring concert and opera company, formed in 1963 by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performers Thomas Round and Donald Adams and Norman Meadmore, and which exclusively performed the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, usually in concert, but sometimes giving full...
, with which he toured extensively, singing and serving as one of the company's directors. He also broadcast on radio and television and is heard on many recordings.
Life and career
Round was born and raised in Barrow-in-FurnessBarrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
(now in Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
but at that time part of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
). On leaving school he started working as an apprentice joiner. In 1936 he joined the police force and was stationed in Lancaster. In 1938 he married Alice (d. 30 December 2010) at St Paul's Church, Barrow, and the couple had one son, Ellis.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Round became a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
and was later sent to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
as a flying instructor for the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
. During this time he began his performing career, later recalling, "I was doing a lot of singing every Sunday in churches all over Texas. I had my own plane so I would fly down 300 miles to San Antonio for an 11 a.m. service, I would sing and then I would fly back home in the evening." He was offered the chance to appear as a guest in a college production in Dallas, playing Canio in I Pagliacci. "It was my first time in any type of production but I loved it." Round was offered a place at a music school in New York, but turned it down in order to return home to England.
D'Oyly Carte and Sadler's Wells years
While still in the RAF, Round auditioned for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, and joined it upon his discharge, in February 1946. He understudied the leading Gilbert and SullivanGilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
tenor roles, appearing occasionally as Nanki-Poo in 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...
. In September of the same year, he became the company's principal tenor, for the next three years, playing the roles of Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
, Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, and Luiz in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
.
Round left the D'Oyly Carte company in 1949, and appeared in a musical, playing the young Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
in Waltzes from Vienna, and an ice show, Rose Marie on Ice
Rose-Marie
Rose-Marie is an operetta-style musical with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and book and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story takes place in the Canadian Rockies and concerns Rose-Marie La Flemme, a French Canadian girl who loves miner Jim Kenyon...
. Next, he sang for six years with Sadler's Wells Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
. He appeared in some comic character parts such as Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, but generally took the leading romantic tenor roles, including Tamino in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Jeník in The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride
The Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...
, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
. He played Danilo in the first production by a major British opera company 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,...
, in which The Musical Times
The Musical Times
The Musical Times is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It is currently the oldest such journal that is still publishing in the UK, having been published continuously since 1844. It was published as The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular until...
found him "dashingly stylish". He also played principal roles in I Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
, Lilac Time
Das Dreimäderlhaus
Das Dreimäderlhaus , adapted into English language versions as Blossom Time and Lilac Time, is a Viennese pastiche 'operetta' with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Hungarian Heinrich Berté , and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
, Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, and less-frequently staged works including Rimsky Korsakov's The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composed during 1880–1881. The Russian libretto, by the composer, is based on the like-named play by Alexander Ostrovsky .The first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera took place at the...
, Wolf-Ferrari
Wolf-Ferrari
Wolf-Ferrari:* Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, born: Ermanno Wolf , an Italian composer and teacher** List of operas by Wolf-Ferrari* Manno Wolf-Ferrari , an Italian conductor, and a nephew of Ermanno- See also :...
's School for Fathers
I quattro rusteghi
I quatro rusteghi is a comic opera in three acts, music by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to a text by Luigi Sugana and Giuseppe Pizzolato based on Carlo Goldoni's 18th-century play I rusteghi. The opera is in Venetian dialect.-Performance history:The opera was first performed at the Hoftheater in Munich on...
, and John Gardner
John Gardner (composer)
John Linton Gardner, CBE is an English composer of classical music.-Biography:Gardner was born in Manchester, England and brought up in Ilfracombe, North Devon. His father Alfred Linton Gardner was a local GP and amateur composer who was killed in action in the last months of the First World War....
's adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence
The Moon and Sixpence
The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire...
.
During his Sadler's Wells years, Round undertook guest engagements elsewhere. He created the tenor lead, Nils, in the world premiere of Delius
Delius
Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius - English composer* Nicolaus Delius - German philologist* Tobias Delius Delius is a surname. It may refer to:* Ernst von Delius (1912–1937) - German racing car driver* Frederick Delius...
's Irmelin under Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in 1953. The critic Eric Blom
Eric Blom
Eric Walter Blom CBE was a Swiss-born British-naturalised music lexicographer, musicologist, music critic, music biographer and translator. He is best known as the editor of the 5th edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians .-Biography:Blom was born in Berne, Switzerland...
wrote, "Thomas Round as the hero was particularly good. He should soon make a Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
, though perhaps only the young Siegfried to begin with." Also in 1953, he appeared in the film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan. The following year, he rejoined D'Oyly Carte as a guest artist for a short period, playing Prince Hilarion in a new production of Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
. In 1955 he and the young Heather Harper
Heather Harper
Heather Harper CBE is a Northern Ireland-born British operatic soprano.She was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1930, where she received her early musical training...
played the leads in a televised version of La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
.
Round returned to D'Oyly Carte, on tour in 1958 in Dublin, playing his old roles of Frederic, Nanki-Poo, adding Ralph, and, for the first time, Marco in The Gondoliers, the following season. During the company's summer break in 1958, Round earned more good notices as Count Danilo with Sadler's Wells in The Merry Widow at the London Coliseum. In 1960 and 1961 he assumed a new role, Colonel Fairfax, in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
also appearing in that role for the City of London Festival production at the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
in 1962. In 1961, he performed more new roles, as Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
and Cyril in Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
, participating in 1962 in the company's extensive North American tour. By 1963, Philip Potter
Philip Potter
Philip Potter is a retired English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.-Early life and career:Philip White Potter was born in Leicester...
had taken over the parts of Frederic and Nanki-Poo, but Round added the role of the Defendant in Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
and resumed singing Tolloller in Iolanthe. In 1964, he again left the D'Oyly Carte company. He told The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, "For the first time in my career I am not under contract to anyone, and I find this quite exciting."
Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Round, together with Norman Meadmore and Donald AdamsDonald Adams
Charles Donald Adams was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his own company, Gilbert and Sullivan for All.Adams began his career with the BBC Repertory Company in 1944...
, founded their own ensemble, Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All was a touring concert and opera company, formed in 1963 by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performers Thomas Round and Donald Adams and Norman Meadmore, and which exclusively performed the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, usually in concert, but sometimes giving full...
, around the time that he left D'Oyly Carte. In 1969, when Adams left D'Oyly Carte, the partners began to tour extensively with this new company in the British Isles, the Far East, Australasia, and North America, including three Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
. To enable to company to appear in small venues, Sullivan's orchestrations were adapted and arranged for smaller forces than D'Oyly Carte employed. Other regular members of the ensemble were Valerie Masterson
Valerie Masterson
Margaret Valerie Masterson , is a retired English opera singer, a lecturer and Vice-President of British Youth Opera. After study in Italy, she began to sing opera in Europe...
and Gillian Knight
Gillian Knight
Gillian Knight is an English singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy Operas. After six years starring in these roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, beginning in 1959, Knight began a grand opera career.Knight joined Sadler's Wells Opera in 1968...
. Round sang the roles of Box in Cox and Box
Cox and Box
Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers, is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic opera. The story concerns a landlord who lets a room to two...
, the Defendant in Trial, Ralph in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic in Pirates, Tolloller in Iolanthe, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore, Colonel Fairfax in Yeomen, and Marco in The Gondoliers, as well as acting as a director for the company. He and Adams continued to appear in Gilbert and Sullivan into the 1990s.
During his Gilbert and Sullivan for All years, Round also appeared as Arthur Sullivan on tour with Donald Adams in Tarantara! Tarantara!, a musical about the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership by Ian Taylor. In the 1970s, Round and Adams presented a television series about the Savoy operas, devoting each programme to an individual opera.
Later years and retirement
During his career, Round continued to give concerts and to sing in oratorio and recitals. He was frequently heard on BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio, and his television performances included several operas, listed in the filmography below. In November 1995, he celebrated fifty years as a professional singer, with a three-day opera event in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
at which Adams also appeared.
From 1980 to 1997, Round took up sailing as a hobby, and he and his wife moved to the Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
coast in 1988. Throughout the years, Round has maintained his interest in Gilbert and Sullivan and their works. The nonagenarian now lives at Bolton-le-Sands
Bolton-le-Sands
Bolton-le-Sands is a large village and civil parish of the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. The parish had a population of 4,098 recorded in the 2001 census,...
and has, for many years, been president of the Marton Operatic Society. Until February 2006, Round was Honorary President of the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
Gilbert and Sullivan Society. He appears most years at the annual International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival is held every summer at the Opera House in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. The three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from all...
performing, lecturing and meeting with Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts.
Recordings and filmography
In 1958, June BronhillJune Bronhill
June Bronhill OBE was an internationally acclaimed Australian soprano opera singer.-Biography:She was born June Mary Gough in the inland Australian city of Broken Hill, New South Wales...
and Round recorded 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,...
for HMV. The Gramophone described his Danilo as "first class ... with a fresh youthful voice and an easy and appropriately racy style." This was followed by Lilac Time
Das Dreimäderlhaus
Das Dreimäderlhaus , adapted into English language versions as Blossom Time and Lilac Time, is a Viennese pastiche 'operetta' with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Hungarian Heinrich Berté , and a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and Heinz Reichert...
released in 1960.
With the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
, Round recorded Hilarion (1955), Frederic (1958), Nanki-Poo (1958), Ralph Rackstraw (1960), Tolloller (1960), Marco (1961), Richard Dauntless (1962), the Defendant (1964), and Captain Fitzbattleaxe in Utopia Limited (1964 excerpts). In 2008 the critic of The Gramophone, John Steane, wrote that, of Gilbert and Sullivan tenors, Round was "surely the best we've had."
In the 1970s, Round also recorded and filmed his roles with Gilbert and Sullivan for All. These were complete recordings of Trial by Jury and Cox and Box, and potted excerpts (as much as would fit on two sides of an LP record) of seven others, which have since been reissued on CD. In 1996, when the Gilbert and Sullivan for All films were reissued on video by the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, Round recorded introductions for each. The Gilbert and Sullivan for All team also recorded a miscellaneous LP, including Valerie Masterson and Gillian Knight as Princesses Nekaya and Kalyba in an excerpt from Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited
Utopia, Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was the second-to-last of Gilbert and Sullivan's fourteen collaborations, premiering on 7 October 1893 for a run of 245 performances...
, and Round as Antonio in The Gondoliers. With Donald Adams, he recorded a musical documentary, The Story of Gilbert & Sullivan, written by Dr. Thomas Heric. He also made two recordings of lesser-known Sullivan music.
For Pearl Records, Round recorded a collection of Victorian ballads, which was chosen by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
as one of the "Critics' choice, records of the year" for 1974, an eclectic collection, Songs You Love (1976), and he participated in a recording of Edwardian music. In 2008, he released a CD of twelve Irish songs called Thomas Round sings Irish Songs, recorded when he was principal tenor with Sadler's Wells Opera.
Round's filmography is as follows:
- 1953 : The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan: Defendant in Trial by Jury
- 1955 : La TraviataLa traviataLa traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
(TV): Armand - 1955 : The Bartered BrideThe Bartered BrideThe Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...
(TV): Jeník - 1958 : The Merry WidowThe Merry WidowThe 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,...
(TV): Count Danilo Danilovitch - 1972 : The Yeomen of the GuardThe Yeomen of the GuardThe Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
(TV): Col. Fairfax / 1996 video presenter - 1972 : Trial by JuryTrial by JuryTrial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
(TV): The Defendant / 1997 Video Presenter - 1972 : RuddigoreRuddigoreRuddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
(TV): Richard Dauntless / 1997 Video Presenter - 1972 : The Pirates of PenzanceThe Pirates of PenzanceThe Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
(TV): Frederic / 1996 Video Presenter - 1972 : The MikadoThe MikadoThe 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...
(TV): Nanki-Poo / Video Presenter 1997 - 1972 : IolantheIolantheIolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
(TV): Earl Tolloller / 1997 Video Presenter - 1972 : H.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
(TV): Ralph Rackstraw / 1996 Video Presenter - 1972 : The GondoliersThe GondoliersThe Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
(TV): Marco Palmieri / Video Presenter - 2000 : Trial by Jury (TV): The Defendant
- 2000 : Together Again: A Tribute to Kenneth SandfordKenneth SandfordKenneth Sandford was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan....
, John ReedJohn Reed (actor)John Lamb Reed, OBE was an English actor, dancer and singer, known for his nimble performances in the principal comic roles of the Savoy Operas, particularly with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company...
, and Thomas Round (video). Round acted as a presenter and performed excerpts of the following roles: Richard Dauntless, Nanki-Poo, Tolloller, Count Danilo, Marco.