Jon Weaving was an Australian
opera singer.
[1][2]
(23 February 1931 - 19 October 2011,
Sweden)
Early life and career
He was born on 23 February 1931 in the
Melbourne suburb of
Kew.
[3] His maternal cousin was the tenor
Ken Neate. He studied singing with Jessye Schmidt and
Browning Mummery[3] before leaving for further studies in London with Dino Borgioli,
Joan Cross, Herman Simberg, Audrey Langford,
[3] Andrew Field and Glyndebourne's Jani Strasser. During this time he also worked as a rehearsal singer with Sir
Thomas Beecham for two years before his friend,
Richard Bonynge assisted enormously in developing a
tenor voice from his former bass - baritone. After a further two years with Bonynge, Jon was engaged by the
Sadler's Wells Opera and made his debut as Danilo in
The Merry Widow opposite
June Bronhill at the
London Coliseum, the first of many hundreds of performances of the role.
At Sadler's Wells Weaving also sang Lensky in
Eugene Onegin, Alfredo in
La traviata, and
Roméo et Juliette opposite Elsie Morrison as well as other operetta appearances including Pluto in
Orpheus in the Underworld, Raoul de Gardefeu in
La Vie Parisienne and Danilo, all of which were recorded by
HMV at the famous
Abbey Road studios. In this time he made various recordings with the
BBC, the first of which was as Eisenstein in
Die Fledermaus direct from a stage performance at the Wells. He also sang again with June Bronhill when he appeared as
Sir Walter Raleigh in
Merrie England. In 1962, Jon began a tour of Australia and New Zealand for Sadler's Wells which had become the
English National Opera
Company. During this time he starred in a weekly television series with
Suzanne Steele which ran on the ABC for three years. He sang with the
All-State Symphony Orchestra during this period and on his third tour of
New Zealand, directed and sang Frederick in
The Pirates of Penzance at Her Majesty's Theatre in
Auckland.
Biography
Returning to Europe in 1966 he was engaged by
Benjamin Britten after many Covent Garden auditions for the role of MacHeath in
Britten's adaptation of
The Beggar's Opera and sang this role under the baton of
Norman del Mar in London, France and in Montreal at the
World Expo in 1967. After study with Modesti in Paris he was engaged for his first
Wagnerian role, Lohengrin, which he sang first at the
Kiel Opera House in 1967. In Kiel, he went on to sing Herman in Tchaikovsky's
The Queen of Spades, Otello, Andrier Chenier, Hoffman, Canio, Gounod's
Faust, Don Jose, Florestan, MacDuff in
Macbeth etc., as well as singing classical operetta roles such as Sou Chong in
The Land of Smiles, Danilo in
The Merry Widow,
The Count of Luxembourg and The Gypsy Baron. He also created roles in
four world premieres during this time and later Rashomon for the
Olympic Games in Munich. He was constantly offered Wagnerian roles and finally agreed to sing Siegmund under the baton of Hans Zender and
Klaus Tennstedt. This was a success and was followed by Loge in
Das Rheingold and Erik in
The Flying Dutchman. During this time in Kiel he guested all over Europe and returned to London for performances of Pluto in
Orpheus in the Underworld and Bacchus in
Ariadne auf Naxos under Sir
Charles Mackerras. He made numerous television appearances during this time also e.g.
The Phil Silvers Show
where he sang arias and appeared in a duet with his former idol,
Sergeant Bilko. He made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich as
Dimitri in
Boris Godunov under
Rafael KubelÃk and then returned to Australia for concerts and a recording of
Malcolm Williamson's
Violins of St.Jacques
with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra which was also released on video.
Returning to Europe he finally decided to accept offers to sing
both Siegfrieds and sang his first
Ring in London under the batons of Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir
Reginald Goodall.
His first German Ring was in Wiesbaden and he was offered numerous
contracts to sing the two roles in Italy, Germany, Switzerland and
France. He continued every year to sing the Siegfrieds and Siegmund in
the famous English Ring in London and went on to create the Siegfrieds
in the Herz Ring in Wagner's birthplace, Leipzig. He sang in this famous
production for several seasons before deciding to take his family back
to Australia where he was to sing a recital tour with Geoffrey Parsons,
record two albums and sing numerous concerts for the
ABC throughout Australia. He sang Siegmund and Siegfried for the Australian Opera, again under Sir Charles Mackerras and performed
Die Walküre
with both Hiroyuki Iwaki and Leif Segerstam. With his wife, the Swedish
soprano Monique Brynnel he made a television series and appeared in
numerous concerts and sung with her in seasons with the Victorian and
Queensland Opera companies. He lived in Kew in Melbourne and made a
career teaching singing privately, having numerous successful students
enter the opera world. He had two sons; Jon (b.1955 to first wife
soprano
Margaret Nisbett) and Jack b.1974.
Jon was offered numerous film roles, the highlight of which was to be
invited to Rome by Federico Fellini to screen test for the lead in
Casanova. This he declined in order to continue his operatic career. He
had many very successful singing students.
In May 2011, Jon and Monique emigrated from Australia to Sweden. They established a singing school in their new home town.
To see more of who died in 2011
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