Walter Widdop

[1] He also won a number of singing prizes in his native county, earning praise for his "God-given" voice, which was honed by a local teacher, Arthur Hinchcliffe.

His identification with the Wagnerian repertoire was strengthened by his recordings, notably his Siegmund in the first HMV 78-rpm album of highlights from Die Walküre, with the bass-baritone Friedrich Schorr also in the cast, under the baton of Albert Coates.

[3] His stage and studio partners included the dramatic soprani Florence Austral, Eva Turner, Frida Leider and Gota Ljungberg.

Widdop remained in demand at Covent Garden and elsewhere for his performances of taxing Heldentenor roles and the heavier Italian operatic parts.

In 1929, with Friedrich Schorr, Elisabeth Schumann and Margaret Balfour, he took part in the first full recording of the Bach Mass in B Minor conducted by Albert Coates.

"[3] In 1938, Widdop was one of the four tenor soloists chosen to perform Ralph Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music, which had been written to celebrate Sir Henry Wood's silver jubilee as a conductor.

He resumed his stage and concert career after the war and in 1949 performed the title role in Wagner's Parsifal, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, at the Royal Albert Hall in London.