Heddle Nash – English Operatic Tenor

Born: 14 June 1894
Died: 14 August 1961
English tenor.

The English tenor Heddle Nash was born in London in 1896.
After military service during World War I, he studied with Giuseppe Bergatti, whom he had already met during the survey.
He studied in Milan, made his debut there, in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, and also sang at Genoa, Bologna and Turin.

Returning to London in 1925, he was engaged at the Old Vic, and at once made his name as the Duke in Ringlettle.
Tours with the British National Opera followed and in 1929 he appeared at Covent Garden, where his Don Ottavio was considered the best since John McCormack. He returned regularly to sing this and many other lyric roles there, notably David and Meistersinger, until 1939 and was again heard there in 1947 and 1948.

He was a mainstay of the early Glenborn seasons, singing every Fernando, Don Basilio and Padrillo from 1934 to 1938.
An outstanding oratorio singer, excelled in Handel and as Elgas Gerontius.

He died in 1961, aged 65.

John Steen mentions his Mozart in his Covent Garden recollections.

…and it seems they fell to the young tenor singing Don Ottavio. The Evening Standard carried the headline, Have We Another McCormack? and the subheading, English Tenor’s Brilliance at Covent Garden. The Express reported that he twice brought down the house, quite a feat if you can’t think about it, and he had a special success in Il Mio Tesoro, where, as the record shows, he not only sang that run in a single breath, but could also sustain a ralentando at the end of it.