| Biography | John Cameron, had a career that saw him in demand in opera, oratorio and recital. Though never losing touch with his native Australia, Cameron spent the most important years of his career in Britain. He was probably best known for his appearances in choral works such as Messiah, Elijah and The Dream Of Gerontius, then more often performed than they are today.
His Elijah was a particularly notable interpretation; his work in opera enabled him to convey both the torment and anger of the part. Sir Malcolm Sargent used him not only for his recording of that work, but also for his second set of Gerontius, when Cameron portrayed the Priest and the Angel of the Agony with eloquent feeling.
In recital, he was a perceptive interpreter of English song. His engrossing, unaffected account of Butterworth's setting of Housman's A Shropshire Lad, dating from 1954 and recently reissued on CD, is an excellent example of his art in this field, showing his natural feeling for the right style. Communication was always of the essence in his recitals.
Not so widely recognised is Cameron's contribution to opera, especially to contemporary works. He created Mr Punch, in the controversial premiere of Birtwistle's Punch And Judy at the 1968 Aldeburgh festival, having already appeared in the premieres of Arthur Benjamin's A Tale Of Two Cities (1957), as Sydney Carton, and of Richard Rodney Bennett's The Mines Of Sulphur (1965). Later, he took part in the first performance of Alexander Goehr's Arden Must Die (1974). Nor should his memorable portrait of the principal character in the first British performance of Dallapiccola's Il Prigionero (1959) be forgotten.
Cameron was just as adept in lighter repertory. He apparently made a touching effect as Jack Point, in a New York performance of The Yeomen Of The Guard in 1962, and among his recording credits are several roles in Sargent's performances of the Savoy operas, and Macheath in the same conductor's set of The Beggar's Opera. Among other important credits on disc are his sympathetic Joseph, in Colin Davis's first (and better) recording of Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ, and various contributions to Adrian Boult's accounts of works by Vaughan Williams.
Born in Coolamon, New South Wales, Cameron studied at the Sydney Conservatorium, before coming to Britain in 1949. Having been recommended by the conductor Eugene Goossens, who had heard Cameron in Australia, he was almost immediately engaged by the nascent Covent Garden Company, as it was then known. His debut was made in no less a role than Germont, in La Traviata, followed by Mozart's Figaro. In 1951, he created the small part of the Novice's Friend, in Britten's Billy Budd at the Royal Opera House.
After his three-year contract lapsed, Cameron went freelance. Among his engagements in the early 1950s were some small roles at Glyndebourne, but, at this stage, he felt that concert work would be more rewarding. He made excursions back to Australia to appear with the Elizabethan Trust, then one of the country's few opera companies, and appeared with the Oldenburg company in Germany (1963-64).
Latterly, Cameron had been a teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, where, from 1976, he passed on his skills to a new generation. |