Bailey, Norman (Stanley)
Bailey, Norman (Stanley)
Bailey, Norman (Stanley), English baritone; b. Birmingham, March 23, 1933. He received a B. Mus. degree from Rhodes Univ. in South Africa; then studied at the Vienna Academy of Music, his principal teachers there being Julius Patzak, Adolf Vogel, and Josef Witt. He made his operatic debut with the Vienna Chamber Opera in 1959 in Cambiale di matrimonio; was then a member of the Linz Landestheater (1960–63), the Wuppertal Opera (1963–64), the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf (1964–67), and the Sadler’s Wells Opera in London (1967–71). In 1969 he made his first appearance at London’s Covent Garden, and that same year his debut at Bayreuth at Hans Sachs. On Oct. 23, 1976, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Hans Sachs. In 1985 he sang in the premiere of Goehr’s Behold the Sun in Duisburg. He appeared as Stromminger in La Wally at the Bregenz Festival in 1990. In 1996 he made his Glyndebourne Festival debut as Schigolch in Lulu. In 1977 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was particularly noted for his performances in Wagner’s operas. In 1985 he married Kristine Ciesinski .
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire