| Biography | Robert Tear, (pronounced to rhyme with "ear") CBE (8 March 1939 29 March 2011) was a Welsh tenor and conductor.
Tear was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the son of Thomas and Edith Tear. He attended Barry Boys' Grammar School and during this period sang in the chorus of the first Welsh National Opera's production of Cavalleria Rusticana in April 1946. He was a choral scholar at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied English. He was later elected an Honorary Fellow of the College.
After Cambridge he moved to London where in 1961 he was appointed a Vicar Choral at St Paul's Cathedral. Also in 1961 he married Hilary Thomas. He and his wife had two daughters. One of the daughters, Lizzie Tear, would have a career in pop music.
Robert Tear's operatic début was in 1966, as Peter Quint in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw on the English Opera Group's tour in Britain and Russia.
In 1970 he made his début at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, Covent Garden as Lensky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.
In 1984 he was appointed CBE.
In 1985 he made his début as a conductor, in Minneapolis.
Tear was closely associated with the music of British composers Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett. He created the role of Dov in Tippett's opera The Knot Garden. During the 1989-90 season, he made a highly successful debut with the Glyndebourne Touring Company as the tormented Aschenbach in Britten's Death in Venice. He also became well known for his duets with Benjamin Luxon, revivals of a selection of Victorian parlour songs.
Tear was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (Coleg Brenhinol Cerdd a Drama Cymru).
He gave his farewell performance at Covent Garden in 2009, taking the rôle of Emperor Altoum in Puccini's Turandot. Shortly afterwards, he commented, "the voice is still there, but the body is no longer able to follow".
Robert Tear's death (which took place in London) was announced on 29 March 2011. |