Edgar Evans (9 June 191222 February 2007) was a Welsh opera singer. His most famous role was Hermann in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Evans was born in Cwrtnewydd, Cardiganshire, Wales. In all, he sang some 45 roles – most of them major ones – at Covent Garden from 1946 – when, as one of its three principal tenors, he became a founder member of the Covent Garden Opera Company – to his retirement in 1975. In that time, he sang more roles and more performances at the Opera House than any other artist.
Those roles included Steva in the first British stage performance of Jenůfa, Zinovy in the British premiere of Katerina Ismailova, The Interpreter and A Celestial Messenger in the premiere of Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Andres in the first Covent Garden Wozzeck and Captain Davidson in Richard Rodney Bennett's Victory. In addition, he was Dmitri in the company's first Boris Godunov, Hermann in the first Covent Garden Queen of Spades under Kleiber, Gustavus in the first Masked Ball performed at Covent Garden since the War, Aegisthus in the first post-War Elektra, Helenus in The Trojans conducted by Kubelík, Narraboth in the Brook-Dalí Salome, and Froh in the first post-War Covent Garden Ring.
Early life
The son of a farmer and the youngest – by eight years – of 13 children, Evans heard the voice of Enrico Caruso over the radio when he was a young boy. From then on his only ambition was to be a singer, despite his father's ambitions for him to become a banker or an architect.
Completely untaught, Evans practised both 'preaching' in the declamatory 'Welsh chapel' style and singing in a barn-cum-boilerhouse on the farm. He received no encouragement as a boy – being always told that he sang too loudly. At 11 he entered the local Eisteddfod as a singer unsuccessfully, but by the age of 17 he had improved enough to steal the show at an end of term concert at his secondary school in Cei Newydd. He went on to win various prizes at local Eisteddfodau as a baritone.
First steps in singing career
The opportunity to take up singing professionally came when Evans (by now an articled pupil to the County Architect) was heard singing 'Loch Lomond' by a talent scout in a pub called The Irish House, Piccadilly, while on a rugby trip to London in 1935. He was taken immediately to The Odd Spot nightclub in London's West End, from where he was referred to Arthur Fagg, conductor of the London Choral Society, who knew Dawson Freer, a singing teacher at the Royal College of Music.
One week later, Evans became a pupil of Freer's – who began by telling him that he sang too loudly. These early lessons helped Evans to establish himself as a professional singer, but he felt that his voice and vocal technique improved immeasurably when, later in his career, the Royal Opera arranged for him to continue his studies – this time with the Italian maestro Luigi Ricci in Rome.
For 18 months, Evans studied with Dawson Freer, using up his legacy from his father – who had died in 1927 – to support himself and pay the six guineas for every ten singing lessons. Running out of funds, Evans took on a milk round in Camberwell – for the Royal Arsenal Co-Operative – getting up at five o'clock each morning and, eventually, progressed to the round in Coldharbour Lane in Brixton.
Some 18 months after meeting Freer, Edgar gave his first audition. As a result, Lilian Baylis offered him a contract to sing as a chorister, under the direction of chorus master Geoffrey Corbett, with the Sadler's Wells Opera Company in 1937 on a salary of £3 a week – the same wage he was getting as a milkman.
World War II
From September 1939 to June 1942 he was a member of the Police Reserve – again on wages of £3 a week – having been turned down for service in the armed forces – he was dogged by kidney problems throughout his life.
Throughout the war, he was singing in shows for the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) and ENSA, entertaining the troops, under the direction of Walter Legge and performing with artists including Maggie Teyte, Joyce Grenfell and many others. After 18 months, he left the police to concentrate on performing, and, in all, he sang in over 500 concerts during the war.
In the latter years of the war and when hostilities ceased, Edgar toured the main theatres in the UK and Europe, singing with the 'Anglo-Russian Merry Go Round Company' performing in a number of cities, including Paris.