Charles Craig

Charles Craig was born in London in December 1919 and was largely self-taught as a singer; his early career was as a member of the Beecham Choral Society chorus, where Sir Thomas Beecham noticed his voice and recommended professional training. He studied with Dino Borgioli and made his solo début with the Carl Rosa Opera in 1952 as Rodolfo in *La bohème*.

He joined the Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1956 and Covent Garden in 1959, and through the 1960s and 1970s was the leading native-born British tenor of the international Italian and French repertoire. His central roles were Calaf in *Turandot*, Manrico in *Il trovatore*, Otello, Radames in *Aida*, Don José in *Carmen*, and Pollione in *Norma* — a heroic-tenor repertoire that the Covent Garden management of the period had often struggled to cast from British singers. He sang regularly at the Verona Arena, La Scala, the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, and was particularly admired in the dramatic Verdi roles where his vocal stamina and Italianate tonal weight made him a regular choice.

Craig was appointed OBE in 1986 and died in Suffolk in January 1997. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his Italian operatic work from his Covent Garden years.