Operatic tenor Robert Tear dies

Welsh tenor Robert Tear, who appeared at opera houses around the world, has died aged 72.

He made his final singing performance at the Royal Opera House, as the emperor in Turandot, in 2009.

Tear, who was born in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, started as a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge.

Fellow tenor Ian Bostridge said Tear, who appeared on more than 250 recordings, had “cast iron technique” and “great intelligence as a singer”.

“I sang with him, particularly in The Rake’s Progress in Munich at the beginning of this century,” he said.

“He was incredibly compelling on stage. I was playing Tom Rake while he was playing the auctioneer and I’m quite glad we didn’t have a scene together because he had stolen that scene completely.

Tear performed as a schoolboy in a Welsh National Opera performance of Cavalleria Rusticana in 1946 at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cardiff.

He made his operatic debut in 1966 for the English Opera Group when he performed the role of Quint in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

He enjoyed a long association with the Royal Opera House in London.

His agent Martin Campbell-White said Tear, who was awarded a CBE in 1984, was marked out by a “variety of abilities”.

“He was a major, major European and world artist who had a fantastic varied career, starting as a chorister at King’s College Cambridge and quickly becoming one of Britain’s great oratoria singers, and moving into opera,” he said.

Despite his achievements, Tear, who was an honorary fellow at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and King’s College, Cambridge, was said to have been a down-to-earth character.

“He shunned the publicity and he was the first person to put himself down,” added Mr Campbell-White.

“Incredibly witty, he could deflate pomposity with just one joke or one witty comment.”