Born John Richards into the family of a fisherman, his voice was discovered at sea. He trained in London and Naples until
1977, then he started his career in the UK: Cardiff, English National Opera, Glasgow, Leeds, Chelsea, and from 1989 also
Covent Garden.
He made his first international excursions to the Colón in Buenos Aires (1986, Peter Grimes), to Hawaii (1988,
Calaf), San Francisco, Amsterdam, Adelaide. Gradually, his focus shifted from the UK to Germany. From 1992, he sang a
lot in Mainz; he appeared in Hannover, at the Paris Opéra, in Bern, Genova, Trier, Kiel, Chemnitz, Strasbourg,
Mannheim, at the Vienna Staatsoper, in Göteborg, Barcelona, Nancy, Zürich, Chicago, Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt,
Basel, Tokyo, Helsinki, Munich, Los Angeles... Towards the end of his career, he was a member of the troupe in Karlsruhe;
he retired in 2016.
He specialized in Wagner (Lohengrin, Erik, Siegmund, both Siegfrieds, Tannhäuser, Tristan, Parsifal); other than
that, he sang a lot of Peter Grimes and also had Max, Canio, Captain Vere, Apollo (Daphne), Bacchus or German in
his repertory.
It's surprising that he managed to make such a busy and long career without any notable failures, albeit he was a heavy
drinker all the time, even before starting as a singer. At age 40, he fell seriously ill because of his addiction, and
finally tried to escape it, but without lasting success; he finally succeeded to stay dry from 2013, when his career was
almost over. He discussed his alcoholism frankly in a documentary about his life shot by his son Lawrence, a filmmaker
(Son of Cornwall, 2022).
Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2
