Opera Scotland

Harold Williams Suggest updates

Born Woollahra, Sydney 1893.

Died 1976.

Australian baritone.

Harold Williams trained in London and worked in opera and oratorio in Britain up to the outbreak of war.  Spending the war years in Australia, he returned to the UK for a few years afterwards.  After he retired from singing he taught in Sydney.

He was particularly noted for his interpretation of the title role in Elijah, which he recorded.  He was also one of the sixteen soloists who appeared in the first performance of the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music.

In 1927 two early complete opera recordings, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, were made by the Columbia company using BNOC forces.  Harold Williams can be heard as Alfio in Cavalleria. and Tonio in Pagliacci.