Royal Opera Season 2024/25

[Master Jacques]

[...] One British Wotan nobody seems to mention these days is David Ward. We've heard of Bailey and Tomlinson but Ward seems to have been squeezed out, probably because there isn't a recording, at least as far as I know.

I completely agree with you about Ward, in many ways the most imperious and individual British Wotan of them all. As a teenager I was lucky enough to hear him live in the Scottish Opera production: when writing an article about him fairly recently, I had assurances that off-air recordings do exist - but I didn't seek them out, and am not sure that anything's ever been made publicly available.

Anyone with a library card (or a personal subscription) can learn more about this very special singer - and generous man - here:
https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111774

[Darkbloom]

I completely agree with you about Ward, in many ways the most imperious and individual British Wotan of them all. As a teenager I was lucky enough to hear him live in the Scottish Opera production: when writing an article about him fairly recently, I had assurances that off-air recordings do exist - but I didn't seek them out, and am not sure that anything's ever been made publicly available.

Anyone with a library card (or a personal subscription) can learn more about this very special singer - and generous man - here:
https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.111774

I always prefer a bass Wotan. I understand Ward was absolutely huge, Martti Talvela size, which must have been quite striking on stage. It's a great shame he isn't recognised more.

[Master Jacques]

I always prefer a bass Wotan. I understand Ward was absolutely huge, Martti Talvela size, which must have been quite striking on stage. It's a great shame he isn't recognised more.

He was certainly an imposing figure on stage. One decision he made - not to play Wotan when asked by Bayreuth, due to prior commitments and his firm refusal to sing more than a limited number of performances during any one year - impacted on his fame, though not the extent of his international career. He did get a CBE for his work.

Another point: when he retired, he emigrated to New Zealand (where his wife hailed from) and was promptly forgotten here: obituaries in the UK were thin on the ground, and it's taken a while for people to catch up again with his supreme qualities.

[Orphical]

He was certainly an imposing figure on stage. One decision he made - not to play Wotan when asked by Bayreuth, due to prior commitments and his firm refusal to sing more than a limited number of performances during any one year - impacted on his fame, though not the extent of his international career. He did get a CBE for his work.

Another point: when he retired, he emigrated to New Zealand (where his wife hailed from) and was promptly forgotten here: obituaries in the UK were thin on the ground, and it's taken a while for people to catch up again with his supreme qualities.

If you visit the Opera Depot website and enter David Ward in the search engine you will get the opportunity to purchase many Ward recordings including a Siegfried Wanderer from Glasgow.

[Cockney Sparrow]

If you subscribe to the Opera Depot emailing list, you will get 50% discount offers on all recordings at irregular intervals, but several times a year. There is a facility for discs (despatched from the US) - sometimes they are are not available in that form for periods of time. But downloads are always available.

[Prommer]

Late to this thread...

The season is a damp squib, apart from Walkure and Hoffmann, I'd say.

And the conductors are very humdrum.

Hrusa is apparently a great human being and a good, developing conductor of Czech and Wagnerian repertoire, but he does seem to be a lightweight appointment given where the ROH is now, compared with 2002, when Pappano took over.

At one time, when they thought Pappano was going to go earlier, they had Yannick lined up, my man in the ROH board tells me...

They also let Rustioni through their fingers - but too similar to Pappano?

Mind you, not sure they would have been any better!