Michael Langdon

Despite little musical training, he joined the chorus of the Covent Garden Opera Company after the Second World War, graduating to minor and then major solo roles.

Langdon was particularly noted for his performance as Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, which he sang more than a hundred times in opera houses from London to Paris, Buenos Aires, New York and Vienna.

Langdon was born in Wolverhampton on 12 November 1920, the only child of Henry Birtles (1867–1931), licensed victualler, and his wife, Violet Mary, née Price (1881–1966).

Michael hoped for lucrative engagements in pantomimes or summer seasons of popular shows, pending which he reluctantly took an office job as a clerk.

In 1951, he created the roles of Apollyon in Vaughan Williams's The Pilgrim's Progress and Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Britten's Billy Budd and played Titurel in Parsifal.

Langdon contemplated an offer from the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf, but decided against it, not wishing to disrupt his settled family life in Britain (or, he said, to miss seeing football matches featuring Wolverhampton Wanderers, of whom he was a devoted supporter).

[1] During his Royal Opera career Langdon created the roles of the Recorder of Norwich in Britten's Gloriana (1953), the He-Ancient in Tippet's The Midsummer Marriage (1955) and the Doctor in Henze's We Come to the River (1976).

[9] Langdon sang Ochs more than a hundred times in Britain and at overseas houses including Paris, Vienna, Buenos Aires and New York.

[3] Excerpts of his performance in the role for Scottish Opera, with Helga Dernesch, were recorded,[10] and he is heard in part of Act Two in a 1968 Decca set celebrating Covent Garden.