Biography
 
Ryland Davies established an international reputation as a leading operatic tenor some forty years ago; he maintains that reputation to this day.

He was born in South Wales GB and entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1960 at the age of 17 to study singing with Frederic Cox OBE. He continued to study with him until the influential teacher’s death. During his time at the RMCM Ryland was awarded two major prizes - the Imperial League of Opera Prize, and the Ricordi Prize-and was made a Fellow of the College in 1971.

Whilst a member of the Glyndebourne chorus Ryland won the Boise and Mendelssohn Foundation Scholarship in 1964, and in 1965 was the first recipient of the John Christie Award. These two awards enabled a further period of study in Italy, firstly, on the recommendation of Pavarotti, with his teacher Ettore Campogalliani in Mantova and then with Luigi Ricci in Rome.


as Essex

 Ryland made his operatic debut singing Count Almaviva in the Barber of Seville for the Welsh National Opera in 1964, a production that was repeated in 1965 and led to an engagement with Sadlers Wells Opera and his London operatic debut in the same role. He made his debut with Scottish Opera in 1966 as Fenton in Falstaff with Sir Geraint Evans as Falstaff, then in 1967 he sang the role of Essex  (see on left) with Sylvia Fisher in the excellent Colin Graham production for Sadlers Wells and also in 1967 sang his first Ferrando in the famous Besch production of Cosi Fan Tutte with Jennifer Eddy, Elizabeth Harewood and Dame Janet Baker (see on right). He also quickly made his name singing Mozart at Glyndebourne with the roles of Belmonte in Die Entfűrung Aus Dem Serail,1968 and 1972 and Ferrando in 1969.


Ryland with
Janet Baker


as the Prince

This relationship with Glyndebourne continued throughout the seventies and eighties, with Lensky in Eugene Onegin in 1975 and with Flamand opposite Elisabeth Soderstrom in Richard Strauss’s Capriccio in 1976 (see on right) both conducted by Andrew Davis, with Tamino in 1980 in Die Zauberflöte, Lysander in the famous Peter Hall production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1981 and 1982, with The Prince 1981 and 1982 (see on left), in Love of Three Oranges, and Tichon in Katya Kabanova, 1988 and 1990.


as Don Ottavio

Sir Georg Solti engaged Ryland for his Covent Garden debut in 1969 as Hylas in The Trojans conducted by Sir Colin Davis. His first major role was Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni  (see on left) [1970]. Since that time his many roles at the Royal Opera House have included Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte, Nemorino in L'Elisire d’Amore, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Fenton in Falstaff, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aeneas in Esclarmonde- Massanet with Joan Sutherland, and Almaviva in Barbiere di Sivglia with Sesto Bruscantini  (see on right) and Geraint Evans. It is interesting to note that in virtually all these productions at the Royal Opera House Ryland shared the stage with his countryman Sir Geraint Evans.
Ryland with Sesto Bruscantini


as Cassio

 He was invited by Herbert von Karajan to sing Cassio in his production of Otello at the Salzburg Festival in 1970 and for two subsequent years. It was also in 1970 that he made his American debut in San Francisco as Ferrando and Cassio. After the success in San Francisco he sang Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at the Hollywood Bowl in 1971, and then Ferrando with Chicago Lyric Opera in 1972. He sang Ferrando at San Francisco again in 1973 and in 1975 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in 1976 sang Almaviva at the Met. Interestingly, he attempted with good success the role of Werther, which is normally sung by heavier tenor voices, in 1977 at La Monnaie, Brussels, conducted by Roberto Benzi.


as Werther
Since the early seventies Ryland has made many appearances on the stages and concert platforms in most parts of the world, including all four opera venues in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nice, Monte Carlo, Geneva, Milan, Rome, Palermo, Berlin, Hamburg, München, Bonn, Brussels, Strasbourg, Madrid, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Buenes Aires, Vienna, Tel Aviv and many others. In concert he has appeared with all the major orchestras at home and abroad, BBC Symphony, London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Symphony, the Cleveland Symphony, the St Louis Symphony, the Boston Symphony the Minneapolis and St Paul Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras, and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the RAI Radio Orchestra of Milan the Santa Ceccilia Orchestra of Rome and many others.

Ryland has sung and recorded with many leading conductors - Sir John Prichard, Bernard Hatink, Raymond Leppard, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Daniel Baremboim, Sir Georg Solti, Richard Bonynge, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Nello Santi, Karl Bohm, Kyril Kondrashin, Lovro von Mattachic, Raffael Frubeck de Burgos, Jesus Lopes Cobos, Silvio Varviso, Dennis Russell Davis, James Levine, Serge Bordeaux, Sir Simon Rattle, Mistislav Rostropovich, Eugene Ormandy, Erich Leinsdorf and Carlo Maria Giulini.


as Don Basilio

The Nineties have seen further successes in a range of new roles. 1993 was marked with noted concert performances of the Reverend Horace Adams in Peter Grimes with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mistislav Rostropovich. 1994 saw a very busy schedule once again on both sides of the Atlantic with the Podesta in La Finta Giardiniera and Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro for Welsh National Opera. In 1994 there was a concert performance and recoding of Basilio in Nozze at the Edinburgh Festival conducted by Charles Mackerras with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In both 1994 and 1995 he sang Arbace to Placido Domingo’s Idomeneo at the Metropolitan Opera New York.1997 saw a particularly successful series of Basilio at Glyndebourne with unanimous critical praise from all quarters. In the autumn of 1997 he made his debut with the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, again as Basilio in a production by Robert Carson.


as Arbace opposite Placido Domingo

In 1998 he teamed up again with Carson for a hugely successful production of Dialogues des Carmelites for the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. Following the Amsterdam performances it was time for another debut, this time at Santa Fe Opera New Mexico and his first attempt at Monostatos in the Magic Flute directed by Jonathan Miller.

The world of song is another area where Ryland has enjoyed success. His gift for languages and sensitivity in the use of words make him a natural as a recitalist. In his early years he was fortunate to be encouraged by and to work with such accompanists as Martin Isepp, Geoffrey Parsons, Peter Gellhorn and Sheelagh Gallwey. The Sunday Times critic J. W. Lambert at the Wexford International Festival in 1973 certainly recognized these qualities and wrote “Ryland Davies gave great pleasure in his lunch time recital. As soon as he breathed the quiet opening of “An die ferne Geliebte” I knew that we were listening to a born Lieder singer. Beautifully marrying platform presentation and purely musical expressiveness, he gave Beethoven’s under-rated cycle with a moving balance of wistfulness and fine, fresh, youthful ardour. His timbre changed for a Fauré group, and again for Britten’s Michelangelo Sonnets. Quilter’s splendid setting of Shelley, “Love’s Philosophy.” fairly soared—and a final group of Neapolitan songs, which Mr Davies clearly relishes as much as Hugo Wolf did, warmed us like a sunburst. So few tenors can command the range of expressive vocal colour to ward off monotony: if the demands of opera can leave Mr Davies time to work at and sink into the infinite world of song, we shall have a tenor well able to take over from the sadly missed Fritz Wunderlich - and, on the showing of this enchanting exploratory recital, go further”. His accompanist at the above mentioned recital was Jean Mallandaine with whom he has in recent years teamed up again, especially at the Mananan International Festival of Music, where they enjoyed highly acclaimed successes. They intend to extend their activities in this the most consummate of art forms.

During the remaining years of his performing life Ryland is intending to increase his giving of master classes, adjudicating competitions and sitting on audition panels etc, and at this point invites enquiries and or offers in this area of classical music. Please use this link to send an Email to contact this website…
 

See www.google.co.uk for a large number of references to Ryland Davies!
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© Ryland Davies 2005
Last Revised:23/10/2005