John Brecknock
Tenor with the ENO known for his ‘beautiful glossy voice’
JOHN BRECKNOCK, who has died aged 79, was a popular tenor with English National Opera in the 1970s; among his specialities were the operas of Massenet, notably Werther, which he sang opposite Janet
Baker.
Opera magazine described him in that new production in 1977 as “the undoubted star of the evening”, adding that he “has all the technical resources necessary for him to be an ideal interpreter of the title role”.
He had made his Covent Garden debut in 1974 as Fenton in Falstaff with Tito Gobbi. Three years later he was at Paris Opera with Teresa Berganza in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, and in 1978 sang Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Met in New York with Joan Sutherland, who wrote of his “beautiful glossy voice and easy technique”.
John Leighton Brecknock was born at Long Eaton, Derbyshire, on November 29 1937, and recalled accompanying his carpenter father on “firewatching” duties during the war. He sang in his parish church choir but left school at 15 for an apprenticeship at nearby Stanton iron works. He told of “always asking for days off ” for musical events, and when he was offered a scholarship to Birmingham School of Music his boss suggested that he do “one thing or the other”. Now married and in his midtwenties, he chose music.
Eighteen months later he auditioned for Sadler’s Wells Opera (soon to become ENO), which in 1967 offered him a place in the chorus and soon he was singing minor roles. Early in his career he sang with Denis Dowling, the baritone and teacher, who taught him how to make a dramatic point at a moment of passion without putting too much pressure on the phrasing. He was understudy for a production of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory when the lead tenor acquired a bad throat. “They thought I couldn’t sing it,” he recalled of the ENO management. Another singer was brought in but proved unsatisfactory, and thus Brecknock finally got his chance.
He was never short of tales about his performing career. Once he was singing Alfredo in La traviata in Toronto with a leading lady who refused to be embraced by her onstage lover. On opening night, as they came to Un di felice, eterea, the Act I love duet, he could see that she was preparing to move away. “Fortunately she had a long train on her dress, and when she started to move away I put my foot on it,” he recalled, adding that he spent the duet “singing into her ear”.
On another occasion he was Pluto, the devil, in Orpheus in the Underworld with Valerie Masterson as Eurydice. His character, disguised as a shepherd, had to hide behind a sheaf of wheat ready to remove his cloak and reveal his true identity. “Unfortunately the hooks of the disguise caught in the Velcro which held the costume together,” he recalled. “The disguise, plus the costume, dropped around my ankles, revealing me in my underpants and showing off a bare chest.” To make matters worse, his next line was: “This is how I really am.”
Brecknock moved to Spain in 1987, continuing to sing for another five years until he developed a heart condition. In retirement he organised charity concerts in Fontilles, Alicante. He also wrote an entertaining memoir entitled Scaling the High Cs, with contributions from Lord Harewood and Janet Baker.
In 1957, while on holiday in Germany, he met Lore Petry, who offered to translate for him in a bar. They were married the following year and she survives him with their daughter.
John Brecknock, born November 29 1937, died May 30 2017