Heddle Nash

Heddle Nash (b. 1894; d. 14 August 1961) was an English tenor from London.

Early studies and debut

Nash was born in the South London suburb of Deptford on 14 June 1894. His musical studies were interrupted by the First World War, during which he fought in Palestine, Gallipoli and France, and was wounded. He later married the girl who nursed him. After the war he studied with Marie Brema at the Blackheath Conservatory and then with the famous Italian dramatic tenor Giuseppe Borgatti in Italy. [H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, "Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera" (OUP, London 1974 edition).] He made his debut at the Teatro Carcano in Milan when he replaced an indisposed tenor in the role of Almaviva in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia". It was a great success.

Operatic career

He returned to London in 1925 and was engaged by the Old Vic Company under Lilian Baylis to sing lyric tenor roles in English. [Rosenthal & Warrack 1974.] Nash was a "tenore di grazia", with a light, lyrical voice, flexible, stylish and graceful, with good breath control and excellent diction. In 1929, he made his first appearance at Covent Garden as Don Ottavio in the company’s International Season. He sang to great acclaim and he became a favourite artist there, much admired as Don Ottavio, Tamino, Rodolfo, David in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", the Duke in "Rigoletto", Almaviva, Roméo and in other roles. He sang at Covent Garden from 1929-1939 and from 1947-48. [Rosenthal and Warrack 1974.]

He made the first of many records in the 1920s, for Columbia Records. These were mostly his operatic titles, including arias from "The magic flute", "Don Giovanni", "Il barbiere di Siviglia", Léhar's "Frederica", "Jeptha", "L'elisir d'amore" and "Rigoletto", and a number of English ballads. [See "Catalogue of Columbia Records" (London, September 1933 edition).] His Columbia record of the serenade from Bizet's "La jolie fille de Perth" made a little-known item very popular. He recorded later for HMV. [In general his operatic records were well received, though there were those that preferred the full-throated, vigorous Italian tenor voice, and considered Nash’s voice too bland, his style too refined and well-mannered — a criticism often levelled at English singers, particularly tenors. The practice at the time of singing opera in English did not help; the English language versions of well-known Italian or French arias often verged on the ludicrous. This affected record sales.In the United States the Metropolitan Opera had a policy of singing opera in the original language and the record companies followed suit. Many British record collectors preferred American originated recordings with international opera stars, to what they considered second-rate, home-grown versions.]

Glyndebourne

Heddle Nash was closely involved in the first years at Glydenbourne, 1934-1938. In 1934, Nash was engaged to sing the role of Ferrando in Mozart’s "Così Fan Tutte" in the opening season at the new Glyndebourne opera house, singing in Italian with an international cast conducted by Fritz Busch. Later that year Columbia Records recorded the opera with the same cast. These records showed Nash to be an excellent singer in Italian, with superb diction. A view supported by Sir Thomas Beecham who chose Nash to sing Rodolfo in a recording of Act 3 of "La Boheme", also in Italian, made in 1935.

Oratorio

Nash’s career was not restricted to opera; he gave many song recitals and radio broadcasts and he sang in concerts and oratorios all over Britain. In 1931, Nash was chosen by Sir Edward Elgar to sing the title role in his oratorio, "The Dream of Gerontius", conducted by the composer and he became particularly associated with this role. The recording he made of Gerontius in 1945 under Malcolm Sargent is still regarded by many critics as unsurpassed. He sang regularly in Handel’s "Messiah", as well as other Handel oratorios. It was said that no Christmas went by without Nash singing "Messiah" somewhere or other. In 1938, he was one of the 16 singers selected by Ralph Vaughan Williams to perform his "Serenade to Music," composed as a tribute to Sir Henry J. Wood. [(Another one of the chosen 16 was Nash's great contemporary Walter Widdop [1892-1949] , who is widely regarded as being England's best ever dramatic tenor.)]

In his later years, Nash was appointed Professor of Singing at The Royal College of Music. Nash gave his last operatic performance on his silver wedding anniversary on April 7, 1957 and sang his last Messiah a few months before his death from lung cancer on August 14, 1961.

The baritone singer John Heddle Nash was the son of the more famous tenor. John was born 30th March 1928, and died 29 September 1994 and had a prominent career as a English classical singer. [E. Forbes, 'Obituary: John Heddle Nash,' "The Independent" 7th October 1994.]

References

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0621730/bio Biography for Heddle Nash] at IMDb
* [http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Tenors/Nash__Heddle/nash__heddle.html William Heddle Nash, English tenor, 1894 - 1961] at cantabile-subito.de/Tenors