John Coates (tenor) - 1900-1916 in Opera and Touring

1900-1916 in Opera and Touring

In the later 1890s, Coates left the stage for a medical operation on his vocal cords and further study, and reappeared as a tenor in light opera in 1899-1900 at the Globe Theatre in London. He first appeared at the Globe Theatre in The Gay Pretenders in November 1900 and then at Covent Garden Opera House to create the role of Claudio in Charles Villiers Stanford's four-act opera Much Ado About Nothing in 1901. Here he was in enthusiastic company with Marie Brema (Beatrice), David Bispham (Benedick), Suzanne Adams (Hero), Pol Plançon and Putnam Griswold, though the press did not much appreciate the value of the work or their efforts. This was followed by Gounod's Faust, this time in the title role. That year he also appeared in the "Gurzenich's Concerts and Opera" at Cologne and at Leipzig.

Coates became one of the most popular festival singers in England, singing at the triennial Leeds Festival in 1901 and performing Elgar's oratorio Dream of Gerontius at Worcester in 1902, followed by numerous other Elgar works. In 1902, he was heard at the Berlin and Hanover royal opera houses and, in 1906, at key venues in Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Paris, plus the Cincinnati May Festival. He sang for the English seasons of the Moody-Manners Company at Covent Garden in 1907 and 1908. Coates took part in the May 1908 premiere (concert) performance of Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers, with Blanche Marchesi, under the baton of Artur Nikisch at the Queen's Hall, and in the Thomas Beecham production of the same work at His Majesty's a year later. He appeared with the Carl Rosa company in 1909. Coates was a successful London Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen. He was with the Beecham Company for the spring, summer and winter seasons of 1910, in which the brilliant production of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffman owed its success mainly to him, and he also appeared in an exceptionally romantic interpretation of Pedro in Eugen d'Albert's Tiefland. In 1911-13, he toured with the Quinlan Opera Company in provincial England, Australia and South Africa.

Despite his lack of raw vocal power, Coates was still considered to be among the finest of English Wagnerian tenors, especially as Siegfried and Tristan, owing to the strength of his musicianship, his evident intelligence and his impressive deportment on stage. Before the First World War, he also appeared in London as Lohengrin, Tannhäuser as well as Tristan. He sang often in Wagner concerts and appeared as Parsifal in concert performances of the opera. He sang Lohengrin at Cologne, too, and in 1911, performed the Siegfrieds of both Siegfried and Götterdämmerung for the Denhof company under Sir Thomas Beecham, appearing opposite the Wotan of Frederic Austin.