Weaving studied voice with a number of noted tenors (Browning Mummery, Ken Neate, Hermann Simberg, Dino Borgioli), and yet they all failed to recognize that he, too, was a tenor. And
so he started his career as a basso in Glyndebourne.
However, since he had also studied with Clive Carey, he was friends with one of his fellow students at Carey's studio: Joan
Sutherland. And it was her husband Richard Bonynge who re-trained Weaving as a tenor. As such, he made a second debut as Danilo at
Sadler's Wells (the later English National Opera), where he was to spend the first years of his career, and to return time and again
throughout his career. From 1962 to 1966, he was back to Australia (and New Zealand), singing so successfully that he soon got his
own TV show for three years.
Back to Europe, he sang Macheath in Britten's adaptation of The beggar's opera at Covent Garden, and repeated the role in
Paris, Lyon and Montréal. From 1967, he was a member of the theater in Kiel. Had he started with roles like Lenskij, Alfredo
or Eisenstein, he developed into a dramatic tenor now: his debut role in Kiel was Lohengrin, and he sang there Otello, German,
Chénier, Luigi, Florestan (but also Hoffmann or Sou-Chong). Guest appearances in Munich (Grigorij at the Bavarian State
Opera), Augsburg, Wiesbaden, Essen, Hannover, Bielefeld, and London (where he returned to the English National Opera in 1973 and
where, stepping in as Hüon at Covent Garden, he had to learn the role within eight hours). He added more Wagner to his
repertory: Erik, Loge, Siegmund and both Siegfrieds, and was finally invited to appear at the Bayreuth Festival in
Götterdämmerung (in the famous Chéreau production, 1976).
In the 1980s, he went back to his native country, as a heldentenor for the Australian Opera. He gave up his career in 1986, and
taught voice in Melbourne. Being married to a Swedish singer, he relocated to Sweden shortly before his death.
Reference 1 and picture source: operainsider.info (defunct); reference 2; reference
3; reference 4: Kutsch & Riemens
