BERNARD LOWE, tenor
Bernard Lowe was born in Benoni. He began studying singing at a young age with a local voice teacher, Gladys Webber, and later joined the studio of tenor Francis Russell in Johannesburg. In 1968 he went to London to study music and voice at the Royal College of Music, and later at the London Opera Center. In London he appeared at the Sadlers Wells Theatre in productions of Gluck’s Armide, Cavalli’s L’Ormindo (under Raymond Leppard), and with the Chelsea Opera Group in Turandot, Rossini’s Moses and performances of various masses and oratorios, while recording for the BBC. After studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he was invited to sing the title role in Mozart’s early opera Apollo and Hyacinth to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the University of Salzburg.
In 1972 he secured a contract at the Heidelberg Opera in Germany, where he sang leading tenor roles in Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, and Cosi Fan Tutte (Mozart), Wozzeck (Berg), Der Bettelstudent (Millöcker), Fidelio (Beethoven), The Mikado (Gilbert & Sullivan), Mahagonny (Weill), Xerxes (Handel), Lukulus (Dessau), Salome (R Strauss), Der Zigeunerbaron (J Strauss), Orfeo and Il Ritorno d”Ulisse in Patria (Monteverdi), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), and appeared extensively in oratorio, radio and concert.
In the USA he created roles in John Eaton’s Danton and Robesspierre and in the US premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve.
Between 1980 and 1985 he appeared in musical and operatic productions in South Africa, on radio and television, in oratorio and concert.
Since 1985 he has been resident in the USA.
