Geoffrey Chard

Geoffrey William Chard AM (born 9 August 1930 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian opera baritone. He was a foundation member of the National Opera of New South Wales.

Biography In 1956, Chard appeared in The Marriage of Figaro, in the inaugural production of the Australian Elizabethan Trust Opera Company.

Chard went to England in 1961 and performed with many British opera companies, including the Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera Company at Covent Garden, and at the Aldeburgh Festival and Edinburgh Festival.

He was a principal baritone with the English National Opera for 15 years, from 1969 to 1985, performing many major roles, including some roles which were specially written for him. His performance as Urbain Grandier in the 1973 production of The Devils of Loudun at the London Coliseum was described as "among the most remarkable on our postwar operatic stage. The enormous vocal range and the comparably enormous range of movement and gesture were welded into faultless whole". He also appeared as Sergeant Meryll in the 1982 television production of The Yeomen of the Guard.

Returning briefly to Australia in 1982, Chard appeared with the Lyric Opera of Queensland, and, since his permanent return to Australia, in 1985, he has performed many major roles with the Australian Opera.

Chard's opera roles include: Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Rangoni in Boris Godunov, Scarpia in Tosca, Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Paolo in Simon Boccanegra, Tonio in Pagliacci, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, and the title role in Voss.

Honour In 1988 he was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for service to opera.