Geraint Evans

Before the rise to stardom in the mid-1990s of Bryn Terfel, there was another Welsh baritone who, like Terfel, was the defining Falstaff of his age. Sir Geraint Evans, though less spectacularly gifted in vocal means and physical stature, was a complete artist, superb in several Mozart roles (his sly, greasy Leporello was perhaps the finest of the twentieth century's final quarter) and accomplished in the works of Benjamin Britten. His burly voice, a baritone with increasing presence in the lower register, served him well in the collection of portraits he left as his legacy. E...