Tomlinson, John (Rowland)

Tomlinson, John (Rowland), distinguished English bass; b. Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, Sept. 22, 1946. He took a B.Sc. degree in civil engineering at the Univ. of Manchester, and also received vocal training at the Royal Northern Coll. of Music in Manchester and from Otakar Kraus in London. In 1970 he became a member of the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus; his first operatic role of consequence was as the 2^nd Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera Co. in 1970, which led to his first major role with the company in 1972 as Colline; he also appeared as Leporello that year with the Kent Opera. After an engagement with the New Opera Co. in London (1972-74), he sang regularly with the English National Opera in London (1975-80), where he distinguished himself as Masetto, King Marke, Rossini’s Moses, Méphistophélès, Baron Ochs, and Bartók’s Bluebeard. He made his debut at London’s Covent Garden in 1979 as Colline, and returned there successfully in such roles as Mozart’s Figaro, Leporello, the Commendatore, and Don Basilio. In 1988 he made his first appearance at the Bayreuth Festival as Wotan, a role he sang there regularly for 5 seasons; he also appeared as the Wanderer there (from 1989). In 1992 he sang Gurnemanz at the Berlin State Opera, and in 1993 returned to Covent Garden as Hans Sachs. In 1994 he again appeared as Wotan at the Bayreuth Festival, a role he reprised at the Berlin State Opera in 1996. In 1997 he was engaged as Baron Ochs and as Hans Sachs at Covent Garden. He portrayed Schoenberg’s Moses at his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. on Feb. 8, 1999. Tomlinson’s commanding vocal technique and histrionic abilities have rendered him as one of the leading bassos of his generation. Among his other notable roles are Hunding, Philip II, Boris Godunov, Attila, and John Claggart.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire