John Shaw

John Shaw, opera singer: born Newcastle, New South Wales 12 October 1924; OBE 1977; AO 1986; married first Patricia Aylmore (one son, one daughter), second Isabel Begg; died Sydney, New South Wales 24 February 2003

The Australian baritone John Shaw was a mainstay of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden for 15 seasons.

He was engaged without an audition by David Webster, then general administrator of the company, on the advice of two Australian sopranos, Elsie Morison and Joan Hammond; he made his London début in February 1958 – less than a month after arriving in the UK – as Rigoletto, with another Australian soprano, Joan Sutherland, as Gilda. He had a powerful, if not very ingratiating voice, and a fine, solid stage presence. He was especially good as villainous characters, and luckily there are many of those in the baritone repertory. At the beginning of his career he sang mainly in Italian opera, but in the 1960s successfully tackled several Wagner roles.

John Shaw was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1924. Both his grandfathers had been singers, and there was never any doubt in young John's mind as to his future career. He sang in his church choir, and then as an amateur in musicals and concerts in Newcastle. A trainee accountant with Broken Hill Proprietary Company, he was transferred to the company's Melbourne branch, so that he could study there with Henri and Annie Portnoj. He also joined the Australian National Theatre Opera Company, with whom he sang dozens of small roles, gaining valuable stage experience.

In 1953 Shaw sang the Secret Police Agent in the Australian premiere of Menotti's The Consul, with Marie Collier as Magda. This production scored such a success that it was repeated at the Tivoli Theatre in Sydney. The following year Shaw entered the Mobil Quest singing competition, winning second prize. In 1955 he was engaged by the J.C. Williamson Italian Opera Company to sing 13 major baritone roles during a tour of Australia. The newly formed Elizabethan Theatre Trust gave a season of Mozart operas in Melbourne in 1956, and Shaw sang Don Giovanni and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, roles he did not repeat.

The second Elizabethan Trust season in 1957 offered the baritone more congenial roles, including Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca and Iago in Verdi's Otello, with Joan Hammond as Tosca and Desdemona, and thus giving him the opportunity to sing at Covent Garden, an opportunity that, after more than a dozen years of hard work, he was ready to seize with both hands. Arriving in London in January 1958, Shaw made his Covent Garden début on 5 February as Rigoletto. This did not develop into one of his finest characters, though the second role he sang at the Garden, the barbaric Ethiopian king Amonasro in Aida, did become a favourite.

Over the next five seasons, Shaw acquired a large and growing repertory of Italian roles. He sang Renato in Un ballo in maschera, which suited him very well, and Posa in Don Carlos, for which he did not have the dulcet tones for Posa's death scene. Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, with Sutherland as Lucia, was more in his style, while the title role of Verdi's Macbeth was a major triumph. So also were Tonio in Pagliacci, Ford in Falstaff and Scarpia. Over the years Shaw's Scarpia became more evil, more sadistic, more powerful in its effect. He was to sing the Roman police chief more than 350 times during his career.

During the 1962/63 season Shaw sang Don Carlo, the vengeful brother of the heroine Leonora in La forza del destino, and also his first Wagner role, Telramund in Lohengrin, conducted by Otto Klemperer. Shaw was vocally and temperamentally an excellent Telramund, and other Wagner roles followed during the next few years: Amfortas in Parsifal, Gunther in Götterdämmerung and Donner in Das Rheingold. Of these, the most successful was Gunther, whom Shaw portrayed as a strong man stuffed with straw. Other new roles included Mr Redburn in Billy Budd, the title role of Simon Boccanegra and Count di Luna in Il trovatore.

Meanwhile Shaw had sung with Welsh National Opera, adding Nabucco to his tally of Verdi roles. For Scottish Opera he appeared as Ford, Iago, Balstrode in Peter Grimes and Choroebus in The Fall of Troy, the first part of Berlioz' The Trojans. In 1963 he returned to Australia for a 17-week concert tour, and then made his US début in San Francisco as Amonasro, with Leontyne Price as Aida. He also sang in Amsterdam and Vienna, as well as visiting Germany with the Royal Opera, which gave performances of Falstaff in Berlin and Munich.

On 28 September 1973, the Sydney Opera House was officially opened by the newly formed Australian Opera with Prokofiev's War and Peace, in which Shaw took the role of Dolokhov. That season he also sang Nabucco. In 1974 Shaw appeared with Scottish Opera as Don Pizarro in Fidelio, a study in evil to rival his Scarpia. Thereafter he remained mostly in Australia, singing his usual roles of Amonasro, Scarpia, Macbeth, Boccanegra and Balstrode with Australian Opera. He also sang Rangoni in Boris Godunov, Michonnet in Adriana Lecouvreur with Joan Sutherland, and the title role of Falstaff.

In 1988 Shaw took part in Sydney in the world premiere of Brian Howard's Whitsunday, singing the plantation manager Johnson. He sang his last Scarpia in January 1989, and in September that year made his farewell with a performance of Jack Rance in Puccini's The Girl of the Golden West. Rance, together with Amonasro, Tonio, Ford, Iago, Telramund and, of course, Scarpia, are the characters by which he will be remembered.

Elizabeth Forbes