Benjamin Luxon

Born: August 1, 1937;

Died: August 1, 2024

Benjamin Luxon, who has died aged 87, was an opera singer who was a particular favourite of Benjamin Britten. He appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in operas by Britten and starred in many heroic productions at Scottish Opera, notably the title role of Wozzeck at the Festival in 1981.

He was a Cornishman by birth and delighted in singing Cornish Sea shanties for much of his career. However, his early career prospered greatly when he became a particular favourite of the composer Benjamin Britten and spent a decade with his English Opera Group (EOG) singing principal roles in his operas. In 1971 Britten wrote the title role of Owen Wingrave specifically for Luxon. It was first shown on BBC2 and then staged at the Royal Opera House.

His former colleague and distinguished tenor Ian Bostridge remembered him succinctly: “Heavenly man and a beautiful singer.”

Benjamin Matthew Luxon was born in Cambourne, Cornwall, the son of Lucille (née Grigg) and Ernest Luxon. His father was an amateur singer and sang with his son in the local Methodist chapel. Luxon attended Truro School and then studied at a teacher training college. He wanted to pursue his singing career and enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music, funding his studies by working part-time as a PE teacher in the East End. On graduation he won the Gold Medal for lieder singing.

Luxon was auditioned by Britten and in 1967 joined the EOG for a particularly sensitive tour of the Soviet Union. He sang two operas on tour (The Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring) and remained with the group for the next seven years touring Europe, North America and Australia. It was the making of the man and established Luxon as a major new baritone.

His gloriously sonorous voice made him popular casting in leading opera houses notably in Britten operas but also in roles such as Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin and Wozzeck.

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At Scottish Opera, Luxon appeared in many roles including the title role of Wozzeck in 1981 conducted by Alexander Gibson. When it returned in the 1983 season Luxon scored a huge success in the demanding title role under the baton of Simon Rattle: the only time Rattle appeared with the company.

Luxon made seven further appearances at the Edinburgh Festival, gave recitals and joined Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a Haydn concert in 1989.

He also joined the Scottish National Orchestra for some outstanding concerts – notably in 1974, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius (London Prom); 1979 Brahms German Requiem and in 1990 for Mahler’s challenging 8th Symphony.

He made his debut at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in 1972 in the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’s Taverner and the following year he made his first of many appearances in the title role of Eugene Onegin. It was a role for which he was internationally recognised and he was to perform it in London with such stars as Kiri te Kanawa and Nicolai Gedda: the 1975 revival was conducted by Gibson. A critic said of Luxon’s performance as Onegin: “his is a characterisation of great calibre vocally and dramatically.”

(Image: Newsquest Media Group)

At Glyndebourne he was cast by Peter Hall in some renowned productions in the 1970s – notably Don Giovanni, Falstaff and Ford in Falstaff, Papageno in Magic Flute (with Isobel Buchanan as Pamina) and the Count in Figaro (with te Kanawa as the Countess).

Away from opera Luxon was an outstanding lieder singer and particularly renowned for his singing of the famous Schubert song cycles. Folk music was another passion and he also recorded Scottish songs on a delightful disc with a charming account of The Wee Cooper o’ Fife.

From his concert repertoire the two recordings of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, one with Georg Solti the other with Andre Previn, won awards. He recorded Britten’s Rape of Lucretia conducted by the composer opposite Janet Baker’s Lucretia. He recorded Wozzeck twice: with Claudio Abbado in 1984 and with Rattle in 1988. His personal favourite was a disc of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the SNO under Gibson which was recorded in the Motherwell Civic Centre.

In 1982 he sang at the Last Night of the Proms; it was particularly memorable as it was a few weeks after the Falklands conflict ended. Luxon gave a particularly heroic account of Rule Britannia.

He was appointed CBE in 1986 and remained a much-respected colleague and a genial and a cordial friend to many. He collected English water colours and was a keen tennis player. In the early nineties he began to lose his hearing and retired from singing.

He married Sheila Amit whom he had met on the EOG’s Soviet tour. That was dissolved and in 2002 he married Susan Crofut when Luxon took American citizenship and settled in Massachusetts. He is survived by his three children of his first marriage.

Alasdair Steven

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