Tomlinson, John (1946– )

English bass. He studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and sang in opera from 1972. He sang Colline with Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Leporello with Kent Opera. For his debut with the English National Opera ensemble in 1974 he sang the Monk in Don Carlos, subsequently appearing with the ensemble as Bluebeard. He appeared at Bayreuth from 1988, as Wagner's Pogner in the Der Ring des Nibelungen/The Ring of the Nibelung, a role he repeated 1994–95 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, where he also sang as the Green Knight in the first performance of Birtwistle's Gawain (1991). At the Berlin Staatsoper he has sung Gurnemanz and for Opera North the title role in Verdi's Oberto, which he also directed (1994). He is valued for his huge voice and commanding stage presence.