Joll, Philip

Joll, Philip, Welsh baritone; b. Merthyr Tydfil, March 14, 1954. He was a student of Nicholas Powell and Frederick Cox at the Royal Northern Coll. of Music in Manchester (1975–78) and of Hotter and Goodall at the National Opera Studio (1978–79). In 1978 he made his formal operatic debut as the Bonze in Madama Butterfly with the English National Opera in London, and then sang Donner and the Dutchman there. He made his first appearance at the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff as Strauss’s Orestes in 1979, where he returned as Wotan in its Ring cycle (1983–85). In 1982 he made his debut at London’s Covent Garden as the Second Nazarene in Salome, and was engaged as Wotan in its Ring cycle in 1986. In 1983 he sang Amfortas in Frankfurt am Main. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. on Oct. 9, 1987, as Donner. His Australian debut followed in 1988 in Queensland as Jochanaan, the same year he appeared as the Dutchman at the Bregenz Festival. In 1990 he was engaged as Jochanaan for a tour to Japan with the Welsh National Opera. In 1992 he sang Orestes and in 1993 Macbeth with the company in Cardiff. In the latter year, he also sang Verdi’s Francesco Foscari at the Edinburgh Festival and the Sacristan in Tosca at the Scottish Opera in Glasgow. He portrayed Sharpless in Auckland in 1994, and then sang Wozzeck in Brussels in 1995. In 1996 he was engaged as Simon Boccanegra and as Falstaff in Stuttgart, and as Scarpia at the English National Opera. He returned to the Welsh National Opera in 1997 as Rigoletto. He married Penelope Walker.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire