[1] A parallel international career developed as he was engaged for guest appearances in the opera houses of Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.
He then appeared in many roles in Italian, English, German, Russian and French for that company and starred in three world premieres including Faber in The Knot Garden by Michael Tippett on 2 December 1970 [1] conducted by Sir Colin Davis and produced by Sir Peter Hall.
Meanwhile, appearances for the English National Opera included many major roles, notably as Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle.
More recently he became much in demand as a lecturer, speaker and translator and was also frequently engaged as a musical journalist and critic.
His numerous recordings include Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex,[5] Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage and The Knot Garden, Handel's Messiah, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Tavener's The Whale, Delius' Koanga plus Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress and Sir John in Love.