Neil Warren-Smith Hans Sach's Monologue from MEISTERSINGER

The Australian bass baritone, Neil Warren-Smith (1929-1981) was a well loved and admired performer.

His love of history made the roles of historical figures—Boris Godunov, King Philip II in Don Carlos and Kutuzov in War and Peace—particularly appealing. He was also a superb comic actor, an ideal exponent of Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kecal in The Bartered Bride and the title role of Gianni Schicchi. After his huge success as Ochs in Rosenkavalier in Australia in 1972, he was engaged to sing the role in London in 1974-75 in a new English National Opera production. This led to further overseas offers, but he preferred to pursue his career at home in Australia. In 1973 he was highly praised for his Kutuzov in Prokofiev’s War and Peace in the Australian Opera’s first performance in the new Sydney Opera House.

Warren-Smith’s large repertoire benefited from his ability to make singing, rather than speaking, appear as the most natural means of communication. He sang the principal bass parts in operas by Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Britten and others, as well as successfully performing comic works by Gilbert and Sullivan and Johann Strauss II.

He died of myocardial infarction on 28 July 1981 His autobiography, 25 Years of Australian Opera (1983) was published posthumously.

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One of Australia's greatest singers