Alfred Deller

Alfred Deller emerged as the first prominent countertenor to achieve wide recognition. In his boyhood he received vocal training from his father while performing as a boy soprano, and after his voice broke he maintained his singing in the countertenor range. He entered the Canterbury Cathedral choir in 1940; there Michael Tippett encountered him and arranged for his London debut. Public notice in England followed a 1946 radio performance of Purcell’s Come, ye sons of art, away. At the outset of his career Deller devoted himself chiefly to English Baroque and pre-Baroque repertory, especially works by Purcell and Dowland.

He established the Deller Consort in 1950, an ensemble devoted to historically informed presentations of early music. For many seasons the group toured throughout Europe and the Americas, acquainting fresh listeners with this repertoire. In 1964 his son Mark joined the Consort, likewise as a countertenor. Deller created the Stour Music Festival in 1963 to furnish an additional platform for the ensemble and to join forces with specialists including Franz Bruggen and Gustav Leonhardt. He took the role of Oberon in the 1960 premiere of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the first substantial countertenor part written for twentieth-century opera, and repeated it the next year at the Covent Garden Opera House in London. Fricker, Mellers, Ridout, and Rubbra also composed pieces expressly for him. In 1970 he received the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He died during a holiday in Italy.

Deller defined expectations for countertenors over an extended period. His instrument was notably light yet possessed a fine lyrical character; it proved most persuasive in reflective music, though he could dispatch elaborate, florid writing with exceptional skill when required. He managed Handel’s dramatic arias without ever allowing his voice to exceed its natural lightness. His recorded legacy traverses the breadth of his interests, ranging from Dowland’s lute songs to Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Had Alfred Deller not appeared, the worldwide acceptance of the countertenor voice would almost certainly have arrived more slowly.