Geoffrey Chard

Geoffrey William Chard AM (born 9 August 1930 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian opera baritone. He was a foundation member of the National Opera of New South Wales. ^[1]

Biography

In 1956, Chard appeared in The Marriage of Figaro , in the inaugural production of the Australian Elizabethan Trust Opera Company. ^[1] He married operatic soprano Marjorie Margaret Conley (1931 –1959) on 5 May 1956 at St Mark's Anglican Church, Darling Point, Sydney. ^{[2] [3]}

Chard went to England in 1961 and performed with many British opera companies, including the Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera Company at Covent Garden, and at the Aldeburgh Festival and Edinburgh Festival. ^{[1] [4] [5] [6]}

He was a principal baritone with the English National Opera for 15 years, from 1969 to 1985, performing many major roles, including some roles which were specially written for him. His performance as Urbain Grandier in the 1973 production of The Devils of Loudun at the London Coliseum was described as "among the most remarkable on our postwar operatic stage. The enormous vocal range and the comparably enormous range of movement and gesture were welded into [a] faultless whole". ^[7] He also appeared as Sergeant Meryll in the 1982 television production of The Yeomen of the Guard .^{[ citation needed ]}

Returning briefly to Australia in 1982, Chard appeared with the Lyric Opera of Queensland, and, since his permanent return to Australia, in 1985, he has performed many major roles with the Australian Opera.^{[ citation needed ]}

Chard's opera roles include: Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte , Rangoni in Boris Godunov , Scarpia in Tosca , Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress , Balstrode in Peter Grimes , Don Pizarro in Fidelio , Paolo in Simon Boccanegra , Tonio in Pagliacci , the title role in Gianni Schicchi , and the title role in Voss . ^{[1] [4] [8]}

Honour

In 1988 he was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for service to opera. ^[9]

References

1. "The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia — Opera . Music . Dance — Volume 2" — Ann Atkinson, Linsay Knight, Margaret McPhee — Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd., 1996.
2. "Feature Story". Issuu. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
3. Carmody, John, "Marjorie Margaret Conley (1931–1959)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 13 December 2025
4. "Geoffrey Chard biography". Archived from the original on 30 September 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
5. Jeffrey, Antony (2011). Many Faces of Inspiration: Conversations on Australian Creativity. Wakefield Press. pp. 192–193. ISBN   978-1-86254-954-8.
6. Alomes, Stephen (11 October 1999). When London Calls: The Expatriation of Australian Creative Artists to Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 68. ISBN   978-0-521-62978-2.
7. Jacobs, Arthur. The Devils of Loudun. Sadler's Wells Opera at the Coliseum. Opera , December 1973, Vol.24 No.12 p.1126-29.
8. Geoffrey Chard ^{[ permanent dead link ]}— The Voss Journey
9. "Geoffrey William Chard". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 3 November 2019.

External links

• Geoffrey Chard at IMDb
• Geoffrey Chard biography (part 1) —Voss