Ryland Davies

Ryland Davies (9 February 1943 – 5 November 2023) was a Welsh operatic tenor who appeared internationally at leading opera houses and festivals. He focused on Mozart roles such as Belmonte in , Ferrando in and Tamino in . He performed as Ferrando first with the Scottish Opera, then at the Glyndebourne Festival, and for his debuts at both the San Francisco Opera in 1970, and the Metropolitan Opera in 1975. His lyric tenor was also well suited to roles such as Rossini's Almaviva, Donizetti's Ernesto, Verdi's Fenton and Britten's Lysander. He later turned successfully to character roles, and performed at the Royal Opera House in London until 2015. He made many recordings, including videos of performances in Glyndebourne and at the Salzburg Festival. Parallel to his singing career, Davies was a voice teacher, from 1987 at the Royal Northern College of Music, also at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.

Life and career Ryland Davies was born in Cwm, Blaenau Gwent, to the steelworker Gethin Davies and his wife Joan (née Baker).

Education Davies studied voice at the Royal Manchester College of Music with Frederic Cox; During his studies, he appeared on the opera stage in Manchester, as Paris in Gluck's Paride ed Elena. He studied further in Italy, and then became the first recipient of the John Christie Award of the Glyndebourne Festival in 1965. and Montserrat Caballé, conducted by John Pritchard. He performed there also as Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni inn 1970, He performed as Almaviva at the Paris Opéra in 1971,

He appeared at the Chicago Lyric Opera. His voice was described as lyric with a specifically Italian sound. Students included Ian Bostridge, Sam Furness, Jacques Imbrailo, David Butt Philip, Stuart Jackson, Robert Murray and Andrew Staples.

He performed his debut role at the Royal Opera House, Hylas in Les Troyens, in a 1969 studio recording conducted by Colin Davis, with Berit Lindholm as Cassandre and Josephine Veasey as Dido; his wife Anne Howells appeared as Ascagne. He was Ferrando in a 1974 studio recording of Cosí fan tutte conducted by Georg Solti, with Pilar Lorengar as Fiordiligi, Teresa Berganza as Dorabella, Tom Krause as Guglielmo, and Gabriel Bacquier, the London Opera Chorus and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; it served for a 1995 film of the Salzburg Marionette Theatre using puppets.

He recorded the role of Belmonte on a DVD from the 1980 Glyndebourne Festival, directed by Peter Wood and conducted by Gustav Kuhn, alongside Valerie Masterson as Konstanze; a reviewer described his "elegant lyric tenor" as "near ideal", rendering "Mozart's phrases and singing with excellent diction". Davies was the tenor in a collection of sacred music by Mozart including the Vesperae solennes de confessore, with Kiri Te Kanawa as the soprano, with the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis. He was the tenor soloist in a 1988 recording of Mozart's Requiem, with soprano Helen Donath, alto Yvonne Minton, bass Gerd Nienstedt, the Alldis Choir and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted again by Davis. Reviewer Stanley Sadie from Gramophone wrote: "The solo singing is of a very high order with many exquisite moments afforded particularly by Helen Donath's sweet, ringing soprano and Ryland Davies's lyrical tenor (caught at its best)."

In 2007 Davies took part in a live recording from the Salzburg Festival of Eugene Onegin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, with Peter Mattei in the title role and Anna Samuil as Tatiana; a reviewer wrote: "Davies, in the 1970s and 1980s one of the finest lyric tenors around, now in his mid-sixties was a wonderful tragicomic Triquet with the voice still in fine fettle".