Opera Scotland

John Dobson Suggest updates

Mervyn Frederick John Dobson OBE.

Born Derby, 17 November 1930.

Died Stanton, Suffolk, 14 May 2023.

English tenor.

John Dobson was a long-serving member of the Royal Opera company at Covent Garden.  He eventually specialised in the brief character roles known as 'comprimarios'.   Between 1959 and 1996 he gave over 2000 performances in some 100 different parts.  He was appointed OBE in 1985.

He sang in the Glyndebourne chorus at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival before training in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He initially sang as a baritone under the guidance of the bass Norman Walker.  He then studied in Milan under the baritone Giovanni Inghilleri, who identified his voice as a tenor.  His solo debut in 1956 was at Bergamo as Pinkerton.  He also sang Alfredo and Rodolfo there.  On returning to Britain he joined the Covent Garden company on tour in Manchester, repeating Pinkerton, though this led nowhere immediately.

After a couple of years gaining useful experience in theatre work in pantomime and summer shows, he returned to Glyndebourne in 1959, with a solo debut as the Marschallin's Major-Domo Der Rosenkavalier.  His debut at Covent Garden was later that year in the same part.

His only appearance at the Edinburgh Festival was with the Covent Garden company in 1961 under Solti as Lysander in the Scottish premiere of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  With the Covent Garden company he later went on two foreign tours, to Berlin (1976 Don Carlos) and La Scala (1976 Peter Grimes, Benvenuto Cellini).

He sang with Scottish Opera on one occasion as a last minute replacement. When the company revived its 1967 staging of Das Rheingold in spring of 1971 the part of Loge was taken by Joseph Ward. For the single Glasgow cycle in December Ward fell ill, so Dobson flew north, taking his Covent Garden costume with him.  David Ward, the Wotan, had already worked with him on the opera in London, so was no doubt able to help with any staging issues.

He appeared at the Wexford Festival in 1959 (Godvino in Verdi's Aroldo).

Dobson's sang well over 100 performances as Spoletta in Tosca - the eight baritones who sang Scarpia with him included Tito Gobbi, Gabriel Bacquier, Peter Glossop and Geraint Evans.  The multitude of roles with the Covent Garden company included:

Mozart (Don Curzio Le nozze di Figaro);

Beethoven (Jaquino Fidelio);

Rossini (Fiorello Il barbiere di Siviglia);

Donizetti (Notary Don Pasquale);

Berlioz (Francesco Benvenuto Cellini);

Wagner (2nd Noble Lohengrin, Melot Tristan und Isolde, David, Augustin Moser Meistersinger, Loge Das Rheingold, Mime Das Rheingold, Mime Siegfried, 1st Knight Parsifal);

Verdi (Councillor I Lombardi, Borsa Rigoletto, Ruiz Il trovatore, Lerma Don Carlos, Messenger Aïda, Roderigo Otello, Dr Caius Falstaff);

Offenbach (Spalanzani Les Contes d'Hoffmann);

Saint-Saëns (Messenger Samson et Dalila);

Musorgsky (Shuisky Boris Godunov, Kouzka Khovanshchina); 

Massenet (Envoy Esclarmonde);

Puccini (Spoletta Tosca, Goro Madama Butterfly, Trin La Fanciulls del West, Tinca Il tabarro, Gherardo Gianni Schicchi, Pang, Altoum Turandot);

Strauss (3rd Jew Salome, both Major-Domos, Valzacchi Der Rosenkavalier, Elemer Arabella);

Stravinsky (Sellem The Rake's Progress);

Berg (Andres Wozzeck);

Poulenc (Confessor Dialogues of the Carmelites); 

Tippett (Paris King Priam, Luke The Ice Break);

Britten (Bob Boles Peter Grimes, Red Whiskers Billy Budd, Lysander, Snout A Midsummer Night's Dream);

Berio (Doctor Un re in ascolto).

Others will be added in due course.

The two Tippett roles were world premieres  - the first being at the Coventry Festival to celebrate completion of the new Cathedral.  The Berio was a UK premiere.