Edgar Evans (tenor)

Edgar Evans (tenor)

Edgar Evans (9 June1912 – 22 February 2007) was a Welsh opera singer. His most famous role was Hermann in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Evans was born in Cardiganshire, Wales. In all, he sang some 45 roles – most of them major ones - at Covent Garden from 1946 - when, as one of its three principal tenors, he became a founder member of the Covent Garden Opera Company - to his retirement in 1975. In that time, he sang more roles and more performances at the Opera House than any other artist.

Those roles included Steva in the first British stage performance of Jenůfa, Zinovy in the British premiere of Katerina Ismailova, The Interpreter and A Celestial Messenger in the premiere of Vaughan Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress, Andres in the first Covent Garden Wozzeck and Captain Davidson in Richard Rodney Bennett's Victory. In addition, he was Dmitri in the company's first Boris Godunov, Hermann in the first Covent Garden Queen of Spades under Kleiber, Gustavus in the first Masked Ball performed at Covent Garden since the War, Aegisthus in the first post-War Elektra, Hellenus in The Trojans conducted by Kubelík, Narraboth in the Brook-Dalí Salome, and Froh in the first post-War Covent Garden Ring.