JOHN COATES (TENOR)

'John Coates' (b Girlington, Bradford June 29th 1865, d. Northwood, August 16th 1941) was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform.

Contents

Training and career as baritone

1900-1916 in opera and touring

1901-1916 in Festival and oratorio

War service and later career

Testimonials

Recordings

Images

Sources

Training and career as baritone

Coates came of a musical family on both sides, through many generations. He attended Bradford Grammar School, where Frederick Delius was his (slightly younger) contemporary. His early singing experience came as a chorister in a church choir (under his father's direction), where he learnt the importance of accent in singing from the performance of the Canto gregoriano. He studied in Yorkshire under J G Walton, Robert Burton, and Dr J C Bridge, in London under W Shakespeare and T A Wallworth, and in Paris under Bouhy. He began singing as a baritone, and first appeared as Valentin in Gounod's Faust as an amateur, with the Carl Rosa company at the Savoy Theatre. He was engaged by the D'Oyly Carte company in 1894, and for two or three years sang comic opera and musical comedy in London and on tour in the United States.

1900-1916 in opera and touring

In the later 1890s John Coates left the stage for a medical operation on his vocal cords and further study, and reappeared as a tenor in light opera in 1899-1900 at the Globe Theatre, London. He first appeared at Covent Garden Opera House to create the role of Claudio in Charles Villiers Stanford's four-act opera ''Much Ado About Nothing''. Here he was in enthusiastic company with Marie Brema (Beatrice), David Bispham (Benedick), Suzanne Adams (Hero), Pol Plancon and Putnam Griswold, though the press did not much appreciate the value of the work or their efforts.
This was followed by Faust, this time in the title role. That year he also appeared in the Gurzenich's Concerts and Opera at Cologne, and at Leipzig. He sang for the English seasons of the Moody-Manners Company, Covent Garden. In 1902 he was at the Berlin and Hanover Royal Opera Houses, and in 1906 at Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Mannheim, at Paris, and in the Cincinnati Festival. He appeared with the Carl Rosa company in 1909, and was in the 1909 production of Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers. He was a successful London Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen. He was with the Beecham Company for the spring, summer and winter seasons of 1910, in which the brilliant production of Offenbach's ''The Tales of Hoffman'' owed its success mainly to him, and he also appeared in a very romantic interpretation of Pedro in Eugen d'Albert's ''Tiefland''. In 1911-13 he toured with the Quinlan Opera Company in provincial England, Australia and South Africa.
Coates was considered among the finest of English Wagnerian tenors, especially as Siegfried and Tristan. Before the first world war he appeared in London as Lohengrin, Tannhauser and Tristan. He sang often in Wagner concerts and appeared as Parsifal in concert performances of the opera. He sang Lohengrin at Cologne, and in 1911 performed the Siegfrieds of both Siegfried and Gotterdammerung for the Denhof company under Beecham, opposite the Wotan of Frederic Austin.

1901-1916 in Festival and oratorio

1901 also saw John Coates' first English Festival engagement, at Leeds, and he was thereafter in all the chief English festivals, notably at Worcester, Brighton and Norwich, and at The Crystal Palace. He was above all admired in ''The Dream of Gerontius'' (Elgar), in which he and Gervase Elwes held foremost place in public esteem. In the 1902 Sheffield Festival he sang Gerontius under Elgar's baton with Marie Brema and Ffrangcon-Davies. In 1904 he was chosen to appear at the Festival of Elgar's music under Hans Richter at Covent Garden, performing ''Gerontius'' on March 14th with Louise Kirkby Lunn and Ffrangcon-Davies, and with them, Agnes Nicholls, Kennerley Rumford and Andrew Black in ''The Apostles'' on March 15th. Elgar, writing to Frank Schuster in 1905, wanted to hear Coates perform the '3 Holy Kings' scene from Wolfrum's ''Weihnachtsmysterium''. ''Gerontius'' was performed with the 1904 line-up under Henry Wood's direction in his 1906 season. Then Frederic Austin was ''Priest'' and ''Angel of the Agony'' to Coates's ''Soul'' at the Festivals of Southport (1906) and Birmingham (1909) and at Manchester (1908). In 1907, in correspondence, Elgar wrote of him: 'The Arch-chanter John was the greatest success and a a joy to see.'
As Michael Scott (who calls him 'one of the finest English singers on record') notes, his repertoire was very wide-ranging and included Handel's ''Messiah'' and ''Belshazzar'', Mendelssohn's ''St Paul'' and ''Elijah'', Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'', Elgar's ''King Olaf'' and Saint-Saens's ''The Promised Land''. John Coates and Gervase Elwes were great friends, and Coates stood in for an indisposed Elwes on (at least) one occasion at Gloucester. On another occasion, at Worcester in 1911, Elwes (a Roman Catholic) was booked to sing ''Gerontius'', but upon being told that the name of Mary Mother of God must be excluded from the text (to sing, 'Jesu, pray for me' instead of 'Mary' etc, and with other absurd substitutions and cuts) on the insistence of the Dean and Chapter, he refused to perform, and Coates was called in to replace him.

War service and later career

He then saw four years' war service in France as a Captain in the Yorkshire Regiment, 1916-1919, before resuming his professional career in 1919.
In 1921 he appeared as Don Jose and as Lohengrin for the Carl Rosa at Covent Garden, but thereafter devoted most of his efforts to concert performance. In 1921 he sang Gerontius at the memorial meeting for Gervase Elwes at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Choral Society. (He sang wonderfully, according to the ''Sunday Times'', a courageous thing to do since in his own words he found the death of Elwes 'too shocking, too staggering to contemplate. It has affected me to the very depths of my nature... it brought me to my knees.') From 1920 he began to specialise in song-recitals, of which he gave several each year, favouring all-English performances and championing English composers, but drawing from the repertoire of German and French songs also. In 1922 Roger Quilter, who had written much for Elwes and worked closely with him, dedicated his 'Morning song' (Thomas Heywood) to Coates, one of his most vibrant and characteristic miniatures, though Coates did not give the first performance of it.
During the 1920 Coates continued to tour overseas energetically. In 1925 he made his only extended tour of North America including Canada. For this his usual accompanist, Berkeley Mason, was not available, and instead he found Gerald Moore, then a young accompanist at the beginning of his career. Moore had often heard Coates' recitals at Chelsea Town Hall, but it was through Peter Dawson (with whom Moore had toured) that the contact came. Once the contact was made, Moore became Coates's sole accompanist for four or five years. Moore devotes a chapter of his memoirs to Coates, whom he found a hard taskmaster, but who transformed him from a mediocre accompanist to to a full realisation of the artistic duties and possibilities of that role, the necessity of being a full participant in every living nuance and accent of the music. Gerald Moore became probably the most famous accompanist of the twentieth century, for whom Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Victoria de los Angeles sang to his accompaniment in a homage recital to him at the Royal Festival Hall on 20th February 1967. This great musician considered that John Coates had laid the groundwork of whatever was truly excellent in his work. Coates told him the American tour would 'kill or cure' him, and considered the result a 'cure'.
The Coates-Moore partnership eventually dissolved over rehearsal fees, though any cracks in the friendship were repaired by 1929. Like Sims Reeves and Edward Lloyd, John Coates had a famously protective wife. Moore refers to Coates' home life as serene, with an adorable wife, sons and daughters, but thought, despite Coates's good humour, he was not a happy man because he was too much of a worrier. Coates lost a good deal of money in a legal case he brought against the Performing Rights Society, in which he argued that he should not have to pay a royalty to perform music in public which had been brought to him in manuscript, and which therefore, by agreeing to sing it, Coates had encouraged the publishers to publish. He lost the case, and it preyed on his mind for long after, though he refused offers of financial support from other singers. In his last years he thought of going back on the stage and started to slim, but was seized with anaemia and became permanently confined to bed, frustrated at being unable to assist his country as the war took hold. In July 1940 Gerald Moore presented a half-hour broadcast in tribute to their work together, and received a last letter from him in friendship and gratitude.

Testimonials

Thomas Beecham remarked of him, 'Coates was among the half-dozen most interesting artistic personalities of the time in England -scrupulous, fastidious and conscientious in all that he attempted. His appearance on the stage was noble and animated, and his voice, although of moderate power, was flexible and expressive. His diction was admirable and his singing of English an unalloyed pleasure to the ear.'
In 1924 Eaglefield-Hull wrote: 'He unites to a fine tenor voice, wide culture, perfection of vocal declamation and high dramatic attainments.'
Of his concert repertoire Gerald Moore wrote: 'Was there ever a singer with a wider repertoire...? he was equally at home in the lieder of Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann as he was with the early English songs of Arne, Byrd and Purcell; he championed the songs of Bax, Ireland, Howells, Warlock, and was abreast of the younger school; the chansons of Weckerlin, Bruneau, Lully, tripped as easily off his tongue as did Faure and Duparc. In Germany they called him the ideal Siegfried and Lohengrin. He had played many roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Sir Thomas Beecham, and it is a moot point whether he or Gervase Elwes was the finest Gerontius of that era.'

Recordings

John Coates recorded first for the Gramophone Company (beginning 1907), and afterwards (including electrical recordings) for Columbia Records.
''Gramophone Company: English and Italian Catalogues:''

★ 3-2910 Take a pair of sparkling eyes, from ''The Gondoliers'' (Sullivan). 1907

★ 3-2911 John's wife (Roeckel). 1907

★ 3-2963 Eldorado (Mallison). 1908

★ 3-2968 There is a flower that bloometh, from ''Maritana'' (Vincent Wallace). 1908

★ 3-2984 At the mid hour of night (Cowen). 1908

★ 3-2985 Green grow the rashes, O. 1908

★ 4-2552 Ninetta (Brewer). 1915 (E34)

★ 4-2614 O may my dreams come true (Fothergill). 1915 (E34)

★ 02092 Cielo e mar, from ''La Gioconda'' (Ponchielli). 1907

★ 02100 Dai campi, dai prati, from ''Mefistofele'' (Boito). 1907

★ 02108 Lohengrin's farewell, from ''Lohengrin'' (Wagner). 1907

★ 02109 Lohengrin's narration, from ''Lohengrin'' (Wagner). 1907

★ 02111 Come into the garden, Maud (Balfe). 1907

★ 02144 Celeste Aida, from ''Aida'' (Verdi). 1908

★ 02145 Watchman's scene, from ''Hymn of Praise'' (Mendelssohn). 1908

★ 02172 Too late! (Atkins). 1909

★ 02584 In the dawn (Elgar). 1915

★ 052219 Cielo e mar, from ''La Gioconda'' (Ponchielli). 1908

★ 052223 Giunto sul passo estremo, from ''Mefistofele'' (Boito). 1908

Images

★ In Kobbe 1922: John Coates as Siegfried (p195), Tristan (p229) and as Dick Johnson (La Fanciulla del West, Puccini)(p675).

★ In Scott 1979: John Coates portrait, Pl 125 (p171).

★ In Lee-Browne 1999: John Coates as Hoffmann, Plate vii.

Sources

★ T. Beecham, ''A Mingled Chime'' (Hutchinson, 1944).

★ T. Beecham, ''Frederick Delius'' (Hutchinson, 1959).

★ J.R. Bennett, ''Voices of the Past: Catalogue of Vocal recordings from the English Catalogue of the Gramophone Company, etc.'' (1955).

★ J.R. Bennett, ''Voices of the Past Vol. 2: Catalogue of Vocal recordings from the Italian Catalogues of the Gramophone Company, etc.'' (Oakwood Press, 1967).

★ D. Bispham, ''A Quaker Singer's recollections'' (Macmillan, New York 1920).

★ G. Davidson, ''Opera Biographies'' (Werner Laurie, London 1955).

★ A. Eaglefield-Hull (Ed), ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' (Dent, London 1924).

★ W. Elwes and R. Elwes, ''Gervase Elwes, The Story of his Life'' (Grayson and Grayson, London 1935).

★ G. Kobbe, ''The Complete Opera Book'', 1st English Edn (Putnam's, London 1922).

★ M. Lee-Browne, ''Nothing so Charming as Musick! The Life and Times of Frederic Austin'' (Thames, London 1999).

★ G. Moore, ''Am I too Loud?'' (Hamish Hamilton 1962).

★ H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' (Corrected Edition) (London 1974).

★ ''Musical Times'', 1 Dec 1911.

★ M. Scott, ''The Record of Singing'' Vol 2: 1914-1925 (Duckworth, London 1979).

★ H. Wood, ''My Life of Music'' (Gollancz, London 1938).

★ P.M. Young, ''Letters of Edward Elgar and other writings'' (Geoffrey Bles, London 1956).
See also D'Oyly Carte site [1]