Grahame Clifford

After the war Clifford was a founding member of the Covent Garden Opera Company with which he played character roles in the German, French and Italian repertoire.

Still appearing under his original name, he created the role of Frank Ford in Vaughan Williams's opera Sir John in Love in a college production in which his fellow-student Richard Watson played Falstaff.

[3] By the following year Clifford had adopted his stage name, under which he again appeared as Master Ford in an Oxford Festival production of Sir John in Love, conducted, as the premiere had been, by Malcolm Sargent.

[6] During the early 1930s he toured with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, with whom his roles included Tonio in Pagliacci, Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Dr.

[11] At Richard Watson's suggestion Clifford auditioned for the vacancy and was engaged to play Green's roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, which were produced in repertory by the company.

[2] The Times said of his performance in The Yeomen of the Guard, "the final moments in which the heartbroken merryman struggles to hide his grief are played with real beauty.

Pinafore, Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, Bunthorne in Patience, the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, Ko-Ko in The Mikado, Robin Oakapple in Ruddigore, Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard, and the Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers.

[1] in 1953, the year of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, he appeared as Walter Winkins in Merrie England in an outdoor production at Luton Hoo house, with nearly 1,000 performers.

[22] In 1956 he joined the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, succeeding Ivan Menzies as principal comedian, to tour in Australia and New Zealand.

[1] Clifford appears in Sir Thomas Beecham's studio recording of The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)[26] and his live Covent Garden The Bartered Bride (1939).