Kenneth McKellar Suggest updates
23 June 1927 – 9 April 2010
Did this great Scottish tenor - surely the greatest of his generation - ever perform on the operatic stage in Scotland?
The OperaScotland archivist has been asked to clarify this, and has been checking out the evidence.
Early years and Carl Rosa Opera
McKellar’s obituaries say he was with Carl Rosa Opera, the touring company, for two seasons. He was said not to have enjoyed the experience.
One of them was certainly the autumn tour of 1953. The Carl Rosa Opera company set out on an autumn tour of fourteen weeks on 7 September. The repertory consisted of Boheme, Barber of Seville, Madame Butterfly, Rigoletto, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, Faust, Traviata, Trovatore and Tales of Hoffman. The company was to perform in Nottingham, Peterborough, Sheffield, Blackpool, Belfast and Birmingham for two weeks each and Southport and Bradford for one week. It was during the Belfast visit that McKellar appeared in principal roles. At any rate programmes have survived in the Linen Library in Belfast showing he sang Almaviva in the Barber of Seville and the Beppe/Harlequin in Pagliacci.
When was the other tour – before or after the autumn 1953? There was a spring tour in 1952 when McKellar may have been in the chorus. In autumn 1952 the Carl Rosa Opera company was inactive. It was in the process of obtaining Arts Council funding. In 1954 a spring tour visited Scotland, but McKellar seems not to have taken part.
If he did take part in a second Rosa season, could he have done so in spring 1952 as a chorus member? It seems doubtful. McKellar was at the Royal Academy of Music in March 1953 – see Stage 12 March p9.
Other operatic engagement
Scottish Opera tried to persuade him to sing Tamino in the Magic Flute in English c1964, shortly after its foundation, but after some discussion he turned the offer down.
In conclusion, he seems never to have performed on the operatic stage in Scotland. Some say this was no great loss, arguing that despite his fine voice he did not carry conviction in a role.
However, as a classically trained singer, it was common for Kenneth McKellar to include arias from opera in his broadcasts. He made at least one studio broadcast from Glasgow for the BBC - Raeburn's the Gentle Shepherd.
McKellar can also be seen as Macheath in a recording of a black and white BBC TV relay of Britten's version of the Beggar's Opera, along with Janet Baker and Heather Harper.
