Neil Howlett
Encyclopedia
Neil Howlett is a retired English
operatic baritone
who has sung leading roles in major opera houses and festivals in the UK and abroad, including the Royal Opera House
, Teatro Colón, and the English National Opera
, where he was the Principal Baritone for seventeen years. Described by John Steane
as "a vibrant voice somewhat in the Amato/Franci line", Howlett's repertoire included over 80 roles.
and was educated St Paul's Cathedral School
and King's College, Cambridge
followed by further studies at the Hochschule für Musik
in Stuttgart
. In 1957, while still at Cambridge, he won the Kathleen Ferrier Award
, and in 1964 made his debut in the world premiere performance of Benjamin Britten
's Curlew River
.
The peak of his career was the seventeen years he spent as principal baritone with the English National Opera, where he created the role of The Mirador in Gordon Crosse
's The Story of Vasco (1974) and the title role David Blake
's Toussaint (1977). His wide range of repertoire included the heaviest Verdi and Puccini roles, especially Iago in Otello
and Scarpia in Tosca
, and many Heldenbaritone roles, such as Amfortas in Parsifal
and Jokanaan in Salome
. Late in his career he also sang Wotan/Wanderer in Wagner's Ring
cycle. Amongst his other roles were Prince Andrei in Prokofiev
's War and Peace
and Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande
.
Howlett was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music
, and later, after retiring from full-time performance, Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music
. He still teaches privately in London and Lincolnshire
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
operatic baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
who has sung leading roles in major opera houses and festivals in the UK and abroad, including the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Teatro Colón, and the English National 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...
, where he was the Principal Baritone for seventeen years. Described by John Steane
J.B. Steane
John Barry Steane was an English music critic, musicologist, literary scholar and teacher, with a particular interest in singing and the human voice...
as "a vibrant voice somewhat in the Amato/Franci line", Howlett's repertoire included over 80 roles.
Biography
Howlett was born in MitchamMitcham
Mitcham is a district in the south west area of London, in the London Borough of Merton. A suburban area, Mitcham is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre,...
and was educated St Paul's Cathedral School
St Paul's Cathedral School
St. Paul's Cathedral School is a school associated with St Paul's Cathedral in London and is located in New Change in the City of London.The School has around 220 pupils, most of whom are day pupils, both boys and girls, including up to 40 boy choristers who are all boarders and who singing the...
and King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
followed by further studies at the Hochschule für Musik
State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart
The State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart is a professional school for musicians and performing artists in Stuttgart, Germany...
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. In 1957, while still at Cambridge, he won the Kathleen Ferrier Award
Kathleen Ferrier Award
The Kathleen Ferrier Award is a prestigious contest for Opera singers held each April in London, England. The first competition was held in 1956. Originally conceived to offer a prize equivalent to a year's tuition plus support, the competition now offers a first prize of £10,000, a second prize...
, and in 1964 made his debut in the world premiere performance of Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Curlew River
Curlew River
Curlew River — A Parable for Church Performance is the first of three Church Parables by Benjamin Britten. The work is based on the Japanese noh play Sumidagawa of Juro Motomasa , which Britten saw during a visit to Japan and the Far East in early 1956...
.
The peak of his career was the seventeen years he spent as principal baritone with the English National Opera, where he created the role of The Mirador in Gordon Crosse
Gordon Crosse
Gordon Crosse is an English composer.-Biography:Crosse was born in Bury, Lancashire and in 1961 graduated from St Edmund Hall, Oxford with a first class honours degree in Music. He then undertook two years of postgraduate research on early fifteenth-century music before beginning an academic...
's The Story of Vasco (1974) and the title role David Blake
David Blake (composer)
David Blake is a British composer born in London in 1936. Following National Service Blake learnt Mandarin Chinese and spent one year in Hong Kong. He went on to read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where his teachers were Patrick Hadley, Peter Tranchell and Raymond Leppard...
's Toussaint (1977). His wide range of repertoire included the heaviest Verdi and Puccini roles, especially Iago in Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
and Scarpia in 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...
, and many Heldenbaritone roles, such as Amfortas in Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
and Jokanaan in Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
. Late in his career he also sang Wotan/Wanderer in Wagner's Ring
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
cycle. Amongst his other roles were Prince Andrei in Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's War and Peace
War and Peace (Prokofiev)
War and Peace is an opera in two parts , sometimes arranged as five acts, by Sergei Prokofiev to a Russian libretto by the composer and Mira Mendelson, based on the novel War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...
and Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
.
Howlett was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, and later, after retiring from full-time performance, Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music
Royal Northern College of Music
The Royal Northern College of Music is a music school in Manchester, England. It is located on Oxford Road in Chorlton on Medlock, at the western edge of the campus of the University of Manchester and is one of four conservatories associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music...
. He still teaches privately in London and Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
.
Recordings and broadcasts
Howlett's recordings include:- Strauss: SalomeSalome (opera)Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
– Montserrat CaballéMontserrat CaballéMontserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....
(Salome), Sherill Milnes (Jokanaan), Regina ResnikRegina ResnikRegina Resnik is an American operatic singer.Regina Resnik, the American mezzo-soprano, started a dramatic career ten months after earning her B.A. in Music at Hunter College. The role was Lady Macbeth under Fritz Busch in December, 1942 with the New Opera Company. A few months later, she sang...
(Herodias), Richard LewisRichard Lewis (tenor)Richard Lewis CBE was a Welsh tenor.Born Thomas Thomas in Manchester to Welsh parents, Lewis began his career as a boy soprano and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1939 to 1941...
(Herod), James King (Narraboth), Micahel Rippon (First Nazarene), Neil Howlett (First Soldier), Kenneth MacDonald (First Jew); London Symphony OrchestraLondon Symphony OrchestraThe London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
; Erich LeinsdorfErich LeinsdorfErich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
(conductor). Studio recording, London 1968. Label: RCARCARCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
/Sony CD
- Verdi: Otello – Charles CraigCharles Craig (tenor)Charles James Craig was an English operatic tenor. He was known as one of "the most Italianate of English operatic tenors". From 1957 to 1980 he performed leading tenor roles at London's Royal Opera House and English National Opera...
(Otello), Rosalind PlowrightRosalind PlowrightRosalind Anne Plowright OBE is an English opera singer who spent much of her career as a soprano but in 1999 changed to the mezzo-soprano range.- Life and career :...
(Desdemona), Neil Howlett (Iago), Shelagh Squires (Emilia), Bonaventura BottoneBonaventura BottoneBonaventura Bottone is an operatic tenor who has performed at many of the world's leading opera houses. He trained at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The Academy awarded him a Fellowship in 1998...
(Cassio); English National Opera Orchestra and Chorus; Mark ElderMark ElderSir Mark Philip Elder, CBE is a British conductor. He is the music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.-Biography:Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of a dentist...
(conductor). Live recording, London 1983; remastered release 2001. Label: Chandos RecordsChandos RecordsChandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :...
CD
- Stravinsky: Le rossignolThe Nightingale (opera)The Nightingale is a Russian conte lyrique in three acts by Igor Stravinsky. It is generally known by its French name...
– Phyllis Bryn Julson (The Nightingale), Neil Howlett (The Emperor), Felicity PalmerFelicity PalmerDame Felicity Joan Palmer, DBE , is an English mezzo-soprano and music professor. She sang soprano roles until 1983....
(The Cook), Elizabeth Laurence (Death), Michael George (The Bonze), Ian Caley (The Fisherman), John Tomlinson (The Chamberlain), BBC Singers and BBC Symphony OrchestraBBC Symphony OrchestraThe BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
; Pierre BoulezPierre BoulezPierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
(conductor). Label: Erato DisquesErato RecordsErato Records is a record label founded in 1953 to promote French classical music. In 1992 it became part of Warner Bros. Records. In 1999 Erato launched a subsidiary Detour Records....
CD
- ChabrierEmmanuel ChabrierEmmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
: Le roi malgré luiLe roi malgré luiLe roi malgré lui is an opéra-comique in three acts by Emmanuel Chabrier with an original libretto by Emile de Najac and Paul Burani. The opera is revived occasionally, but has not found a place in the repertory, mainly because of the poor libretto...
– Henri Gui (Henri de Valois), André Mallabrera (Comte de Nangis), Odile Pieti (Minka), Christiane Stutzman (Alexina), Neil Howlett (Laski), Michel TrempontMichel TrempontMichel Trempont is a Belgian operatic baritone whose repertoire extends from the 18th century to the creation of contemporary works. His brother was Pol Trempont , operatic tenor and one time director of the Théâtre de Mons.-Life and career:After studies with Rogatchewsky, Trempont made his debut...
(Fritelli); BBC Northern Singers and the BBC Northern Symphony OrchestraBBC PhilharmonicThe BBC Philharmonic is a British broadcasting symphony orchestra based at Media City UK, Salford, England. It is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Bridgewater Hall....
; Manuel RosenthalManuel RosenthalManuel Rosenthal was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America...
(conductor). BBC broadcast, 1975.
- Britten: GlorianaGlorianaGloriana is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by William Plomer, based on Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey...
– Sarah Walker (Queen Elizabeth I), Anthony Rolfe JohnsonAnthony Rolfe JohnsonAnthony Rolfe Johnson, CBE was an English operatic tenor.-Life and career:Born in Tackley in Oxfordshire, Rolfe Johnson studied with Ellis Keeler and Vera Rosza at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He first appeared in opera in the chorus and in small roles at the Glyndebourne Festival...
(Earl of Essex), Jean RigbyJean RigbyJean Rigby , is an English opera and concert singer. A mezzo-soprano, she is a long-time principal with the English National Opera....
(Countess of Essex), Neil Howlett (Lord Mountjoy), Alan OpieAlan OpieAlan Opie is a Cornish baritone, primarily known as an opera singer.He attended Truro School and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the London Opera Centre before joining the Sadler's Wells Opera...
(Sir Robert Cecil), Elizabeth Vaughan (Lady Rich), Richard Van AllanRichard Van AllanRichard Van Allan CBE was a versatile British operatic bass singer who had a lengthy career.He sang varied repertoire at Covent Garden and English National Opera, as well as at numerous important houses worldwide...
(Sir Walter Raleigh), Malcolm Donnelly (Henry Cuffe); English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra; Mark Elder (conductor). Live recording, London 1984 (also broadcast on the BBC). Label: ArtHaus Musik DVD
Sources
- Blyth, Alan, http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/December%202006/119/833608/Britten+Gloriana+Sarah+Walker+sop+Queen+Elizabeth+I+Anthony+Rolfe+Johnson+ten+Earl+of+Essex+Jean+Rigby+mez+Countess+of+Essex+Neil+Howlett+bar+Lord+Mountjoy+Alan+Opie+bar+Sir+Robert+Cecil+Elizabeth+Vaughan+sop+Lady+Rich+Richard+Van+Allan+bass+Sir+Walter+Raleigh+Malcolm+Donnelly+bar+Henry+Cuffe+ENO+Chorus+and+Orchestra++Mark+Elder+Stage+director+Colin+Graham"Review: Gloriana"], Gramophone, December 2006.
- Cariaga, Daniel, "Long Beach Successfully Stages Difficult 'Pelleas'", Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, 26 April 1991 - Chandos Records, Liner Notes: Otello, CHAN 3068, 2001
- Cummings, David M. (ed.), "Howlett, Neil", International Who's Who in Music, Routledge, 2000 p. 268. ISBN 0948875534
- Henahan, Donal, "A British 'War and Peace'", New York Times, 29 June 1984
- Kathleen Ferrier Awards, List of Winners
- Steane, J. B., http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/December%201980/108/790781/OPERATIC+ARIAS.+Luciano+Pavarotti+%28tenor%29%2C+National+Philharmonic+Orchestra+conducted+by+Oliviero+do+Febritiis+and+Riccardo+Chailly.+Decca+digital+OF+SXDL7504%3A+KSXDC7504.+Giordano%3A+FEDORA%E2%80%94Amor+ti+vieta.+ANDREA+CHENIER%E2%80%94Colpito+gui+mavete+Un+di+allazzurro+spazio%3A+Come+un+bel+dl+di+maggio%3A+Si%2C+fui+soldato.+Boito%3A+MEFISTOFELE%E2%80%94Dal+campi%2C+dai+prati%3A+Ogni+mortal+mister+gustai+Giunto+sul+passo+estremo.+Cilea%3A+ADRIANA+LECOUVREUR%E2%80%94La+dolcissima+effigie%3A+Lanima+ho+stanca.+Mascagni%3A+IRIS%E2%80%94Apri+la+tua+finestral+Meyerboer%3A+LAFRICANA%E2%80%94Mi+batte+il+cor+0+paradiso.+Massenet%3A+WERTHERPourguoi+me+r%C3%A9veiller.+Puccini%3A+LA+FANCIULLA+DEL+WEST%E2%80%94Chella+mi+creda.+MANON"Review: Luciano Pavarotti: Operatic Arias], Gramophone, December 1980