Thomas Round 1915-2016

[hmvman]

Still upset at the passing of Neville Marriner, I learned today that Thomas Round, the D'Oyly Carte and Sadlers Wells tenor, died on Sunday evening. He was just a couple of weeks short of his 101st birthday.

I think he was one of the last survivors of that generation of G&S performers of the '50s and '60s. For many years he was a popular regular at the annual G&S Festival in Buxton.

I got to know Tom about 13 years ago when he was in his late 80s. I'd seen him perform with his Gilbert & Sullivan for All company in London in the 1970s and it was a delight to get to know him in later life and hear his many stories of life touring with "The Cartes." When he was 90 he made some new cylinder recordings of music hall songs for the City of London Phonograph & Gramophone Society and I was lucky enough to be involved with that project. Tom approached the process, and endless numbers of takes, with his characteristic enthusiasm and impish humour.

Another character that will be sorely missed.

R.I.P Tom and thanks for the fun.

[french frank]

And such a blast from the past I was struggling to remember the associations. Of course, the handsome "Rafe" Rackstraw! Et many al. Thanks for refreshing my memory, hmvman.

[hmvman]

And such a blast from the past I was struggling to remember the associations. Of course, the handsome "Rafe" Rackstraw! Et many al. Thanks for refreshing my memory, hmvman.

A nice little tribute on Breakfast this morning, FF, with Tom singing Rackstraw's "The Nightingale Sighed".

[Stanley Stewart]

"...A glooming peace this morning with it brings..." (Romeo&Juliet). Act V, Sc iii

So, another old-timer shakes off this mortal coil.

Thomas Round was, indeed, a lynchpin at Sadler's Wells with a splendid stage presence and natural warmth - he leaves behind a catalogue of happy memories and recordings. RIP

[secondfiddle]

Thomas Round was also the Nils in Beecham's 1953 premiere production at Oxford of Delius's opera Irmelin (its only staging) in which Nils the hero is in search of a silver stream, and he would afterwards tell how he was teased by friends he met who would ask, 'Are you still looking for that silver stream?'

[hmvman]

Thomas Round was also the Nils in Beecham's 1953 premiere production at Oxford of Delius's opera Irmelin (its only staging) in which Nils the hero is in search of a silver stream, and he would afterwards tell how he was teased by friends he met who would ask, 'Are you still looking for that silver stream?'

Some years ago Tom gave a talk to the CLPGS Northern Group about that Irmelin production. One story he told was that during rehearsals there was a scene where he kept getting his entry wrong so he asked Beecham, "Sir Thomas, can you give me some sort of signal?" to gasps from the rest of the assembled company. At the next attempt Tom arrived on stage at which point Beecham threw his baton at him exclaiming, “there’s your damn signal, Mr Round!” to a round of applause from the orchestra. After that, Tom said, he never missed the cue again.

[Roslynmuse]

When I was about seven or eight I was taken to one of the G and S For All performances; Thomas Round, Donald Adams, Valerie Masterson (I think) - what a stellar line-up. they really could sing, although I didn't appreciate that refinement at the time! He was certainly, on the recorded evidence, the finest of the D'Oyly Carte tenors, natural sounding (unlike his predecessor Leonard Osborn) and full of personality with a sense of fun - something Philip Potter, who succeeded him, never quite managed. RIP, Mr Round, and thanks for the music and memories.