Obituary,
Norman Bailey (1933-2021)
The British bass-baritone Norman Bailey, who was especially acclaimed for his portrayals of Wagner’s Hans Sachs and Wotan/The Wanderer (both in German and English), has died aged 88.
Born in Birmingham in 1933, Bailey spent much of his childhood in South Africa, where he read theology at university before relocating to Vienna to study voice with Julius Patzak and Adolf Vogel, making his operatic debut in Rossini’s La cambiale di Matrimonio in 1959. He spent the mid-1960s as an ensemble-member at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where Verdi roles featured heavily in his repertoire, and sang his first Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger at La Scala in 1968. He went on to become one of the leading exponents of the role in the latter part of the twentieth century, singing it at Bayreuth, the Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera; Gramophone described his interpretation on Sir Georg Solti’s Decca recording in the mid-1970s as ‘the most rounded portrayal to date’, whilst The Penguin Guide deemed his ‘mature and involving’ Sachs as ‘the great glory of the set’.
A live recording of an earlier, English-language production with Sir Reginald Goodall and English National Opera (issued on Chandos in 2008) also met with considerable critical acclaim, with The Sunday Times praising Bailey’s ‘earthy and poetic’ characterisation of Wagner’s cobbler-poet and The Guardian describing his performance as ‘the most beautiful on disc’. Bailey, whose long association with Sadlers’ Wells/English National Opera began in 1967, also sang Wotan/The Wanderer and Gunther in Goodall’s much-praised Ring Cycle in the early 1970s, prompting The New York Times to hail his Wotan as ‘probably the best in the world today, in any language’.
Bailey’s repertoire also included the title-role in Der fliegende Holländer (which he recorded with Solti in 1976), Amfortas in Parsifal, Barak in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, Tippett’s King Priam, Schigolch in Berg’s Lulu, and - on a lighter note – Dr Engel in Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince and Baron Zita in Die lustige Witwe. In 1985 he created the role of Johann Matthys in Alexander Goehr’s opera Behold the Sun in Duisberg.
A natural, charismatic communicator, Bailey made frequent television and radio appearances throughout the 1970s, including BBC broadcasts of Der fliegende Holländer and Macbeth as well as documentaries and interviews; in 1976 he was a castaway on Desert Island Discs, where his choices included Sach’s closing monologue from Die Meistersinger. He was made a CBE in 1977, and continued to perform well into his seventies.
In the late 1990s Bailey moved to Idaho with his wife, the American soprano Kristine Ciesinski (a celebrated Salome, Emilia Marty and Lady Macbeth), who died in a gliding accident in 2018. Bailey’s death was announced yesterday.
Norman Bailey - a selected discography
Norman Bailey (Hans Sachs), Margaret Curphey (Eva), Alberto Remedios (Walther), Derek Hammond-Stroud (Beckmesser), Ann Robson (Magdalene), Gregory Dempsey (David), Noel Mangin (Pogner), Stafford Dean (Nightwatchman)
Sadlers Wells Opera Orchestra & Chorus, Reginald Goodall
Available Format: 4 CDs
Norman Bailey (Hans Sachs), René Kollo (Walther von Stolzing), Hannelore Bode (Eva), Adolf Dallapozza (David), Bernd Weikl (Beckmesser), Magdalene (Julia Hamari (Magdalene), Kurt Moll (Pogner)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Sir Georg Solti
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Norman Bailey (Wotan), Derek Hammond-Stroud (Alberich), Emile Belcourt (Loge), Katherine Pring (Fricka), Robert Lloyd (Fasolt), Clifford Grant (Fafner), Gregory Dempsey (Mime), Lois McDonnall (Freia), Anne Collins (Erda)
English National Opera, Reginald Goodall
Available Formats: 3 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Norman Bailey (Wotan), Rita Hunter (Brünnhilde), Alberto Remedios (Siegmund), Margaret Curphey (Sieglinde), Clifford Grant (Hunding), Ann Howard (Fricka)
English National Opera Orchestra & Chorus, Reginald Goodall
Available Formats: 4 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Alberto Remedios (Siegfried), Norman Bailey (Wanderer), Rita Hunter (Brünnhilde), Derek Hammond-Stroud (Alberich), Gregory Dempsey (Mime), Clifford Grant (Fafner), Anne Collins (Erda), Maurine London (Woodbird), Barry Tuckwell (horn)
Sadler's Wells Opera Orchestra, Reginald Goodall
Available Formats: 4 CDs, MP3, FLAC
Jon Vickers (Parsifal), Norman Bailey (Amfortas), Amy Shuard (Kundry), Louis Hendrikx (Gurnemanz), Donald McIntyre (Kundry), Michael Langdon (Titurel)
Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Reginald Goodall
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Norman Bailey (Der Holländer), Janis Martin (Senta), Martti Talvela (Daland), René Kollo (Erik), Isola Jones (Mary), Werner Krenn (Der Steuermann)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Georg Solti
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Norman Bailey (Priam), Heather Harper (Hecuba), Thomas Allen (Hector), Felicity Palmer (Andromache), Philip Langridge (Paris), Yvonne Minton (Helen), Robert Tear (Achilles)
London Sinfonietta, David Atherton
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Norman Bailey (bass-baritone), Geoffrey Parsons (piano)
Available Formats: Presto CD, MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
