Opera Scotland

Gwyn Griffiths Suggest updates

Welsh baritone.

Gwyn Griffiths studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music and in Italy with Mariano Stabile.  He began his career in Ireland, singing in Dublin,  Waterford and Cork, and also performed at the Wexford Festival.

He was a member of the Glyndebourne company, appearing at several Edinburgh Festivals in Ariadne auf Naxos,  Il barbiere di Siviglia  and Arlecchino. He joined Touring Opera 58, the last appearance of Carl Rosa artists before the merger with Sadler's Wells the following year,  singing  Masetto and  Alfio.  His roles with Sadler's Wells included major baritone parts by Mozart (Figaro,  Papageno);  Verdi (Rigoletto);  Puccini (Marcello,  Scarpia,  Sharpless,  Jack Rance);  Leoncavallo (Tonio)  and Giordano  (Gerard).  He created the role of Tovey in The Mines of Sulphur (Bennett 1965).  At Covent Garden he sang Wagner (Alberich) and Strauss (Faninal, One-Eyed Brother Die Frau ohne Schatten). With Welsh National Opera roles included Ford Falstaff.

With Scottish Opera he sang Alberich in Das Rheingold (1967) and Götterdämmerung (1968).

Roles in Scotland

Wig-maker
Ariadne on Naxos 1954
Fiorello servant of the Count
Barbiere di Siviglia 1955
Alfio the village carter
Cavalleria Rusticana 1958
Masetto a peasant, engaged to Zerlina
Don Giovanni 1958
Sharpless U S Consul in Nagasaki
Madam Butterfly 1959
Carlo Gérard Charles Gérard, a servant of the Countess, later an agent of Robespierre
Andrea Chénier 1960
Cospicuo a priest
Arlecchino 1960
Marcello a painter
Bohème 1960
Figaro the Count's valet
Nozze di Figaro 1961
Papageno a bird-catcher
Zauberflöte 1962
Tonio a player
Pagliacci 1963
Jack Rance sheriff
Fanciulla del West 1964
Rigoletto a jester
Rigoletto 1964
Rigoletto 1968
Tovey a tramp, once a seaman
Mines of Sulphur 1965
Alberich a Nibelung
Rheingold 1967
Alberich a Nibelung
Götterdämmerung 1968

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