Joseph Hislop

Hislop had always wanted to be a singer, but learned the trade of photoengraving first. An Edinburgh chorus master told him his voice would never suffice for a professional career, so he continued with photoengraving, and studied the new three-color process at a specialized London school residing in (and named after) Bolt Court. He was good enough that Bolt Court sent him to Göteborg in Sweden to introduce the three-color process at a company there. While in Göteborg, he sang in a male choir; he pleased – and left photoengraving, stayed in Sweden and studied voice in Stockholm, first with a private teacher, then he was accepted into the opera school at the Royal Opera.

He made his debut at that theater on 12 September 1914 as Gounod's Faust. He stayed at the Royal Opera until 1919, then he was at the San Carlo in Naples for one season. In 1920, he made his debuts both at Covent Garden (where he sang regularly until 1928) and in Chicago, where he was very successful as Rodolfo, Pinkerton, Cavaradossi, Duca, Radames and Roméo. In 1923, he was at La Scala as Edgardo, in 1924 at La Monnaie in Brussels, in 1925 at the Colón in Buenos Aires, in 1926 at the Paris Opéra as Rodolfo. But he continued to live in Stockholm, where he also regularly sang as a guest.

Stockholm was also where he sang his last performance in 1937. Already from 1936, he taught voice in Sweden, and had many really successful students until 1948 (Jussi Björling, Birgit Nilsson, Sven-Olof Sandberg, Hugo Hasslo, Alf Alfer, Conny Söderström, among others). From 1948 to 1952, he was a voice instructor at both Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells, and from 1952 to 1964, he taught at the Guildhall School in London (Peter Glossop was one of his students there).

Reference 1, reference 2: Kutsch & Riemens