Geraint Evans - Reputation, Honours and Retirement

Reputation, Honours and Retirement

Peter Ustinov, who directed Evans in opera, wrote of him:

His great qualities are a permanent commentary on all that make opera inviting, and finally impossible, to someone trained in the theatre. With his fine eighteenth-century face, looking like many of the actors' portraits in the Garrick club, dark eyes, bulbous nose and chubby cheeks, on the small side, bristling with invention, ferociously energetic, helpful, greedy, understanding, and unscrupulous, he knows from the outset what he intends to do, usually because he has already done it successfully, and rehearsals are spent getting his own way by running the whole gamut of techniques, from charm to bluster and back again.

The critic Peter Conrad commented on Evans's "physiognomic intelligence...His characterisations were built from the shoes up - his Claggart in Billy Budd minced; his Wozzeck plodded; his Beckmesser scurried like an officious beetle; his Falstaff had a pigeon-toed waddle."

Evans was knighted in 1969. Other honours conferred on him included: Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music (1960); Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award (1963); Hon. Doctor of Music, University of Wales, (1965); Harriet Cohen International Award (1967); Hon. RAM (1969); Hon. Doctor of Music, Leicester University (1969); Fellow, University College, Cardiff (1976); Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music (1978); Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford; San Francisco Opera Medal (1980); Fidelio Medal (1980); Fellow of the Royal College of Music (1981); Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (1984); Freeman, City of London (1984); Society of Cymmrodorion Medal, 1984; Hon. Doctor of Music Oxford University (1985); Order of St John (1986); Fellow, Trinity College, London (1987); Fellow University College, Swansea (1990).

After his retirement from the operatic stage in 1983 (his farewell performances were as Dulcamara), he continued to work as an operatic stage director. He was more in demand abroad than at home in this capacity and directed Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Falstaff, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Pasquale in the U.S. In 1984 Evans published his memoirs, A Knight at the Opera, written in collaboration with Noël Goodwin. A paperback edition was published the following year.

Evans's final public appearance was in July 1992 (only two months before his death) at the gala to mark the closure of the old opera house at Glyndebourne, along with Janet Baker, Montserrat Caballé, Cynthia Haymon, Felicity Lott, Ruggero Raimondi, Elisabeth Söderström and Frederica von Stade.

Evans died in Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth at the age of 70. A memorial service in Westminster Abbey was attended by more than 1,700 family, friends and admirers. The orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera House were conducted by Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Edward Downes. Hymns were sung in Welsh, and lessons were read by Donald Sinden and Stuart Burrows. Among the congregation were Dame Joan Sutherland, Peter Brook, and representatives of the Welsh National Opera and the London Welsh rugby club.