With an invitation to return to Covent Garden, to sing Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for the first time at the Royal Opera House, and with the Vienna State Opera offering him a number of roles, fate cruelly intervened when the Irish tenor Dermot Troy died suddenly in Hamburg on 6 September 1962 aged thirty-five. Thus ended an already brilliant career, which, although barely a decade in duration, found Dermot Troy reaching heights to which many others might merely aspire over a much longer period of time.
With relatively scant musical education in his formative years, but possessing a natural talent and, more importantly, a distinctively attractive lyrical tenor voice, Dermot Troy became the recognised Mozartean interpreter throughout the Federal Republic of Germany between 1958 and 1962. His success came not only through his unusual vocal quality and natural acting ability but resulted from a positive dedication to his art and a relentless commitment to the ethic of hard work despite suffering a hearing defect from his service with the Royal Air Force in the late 1940s. Hand in hand with these admirable attributes lodged an abiding personal humility and a steadfast respect towards his fellow artists. Neither judgmental nor critical he sought to encourage and support those around him. Dermot Troy possessed an innate generosity and a magnetic charm that endeared him to all who had the privilege of coming into contact with him.
Dermot Troy was born in Tinahely in the southwest area of County Wicklow, known as the Garden of Ireland, on 31 July 1927. While his ancestry can be traced to North County Dublin, where a number of his relatives lived and farmed, his father Richard served in the military police division of the Irish Armed Forces and married midwife Maureen (Molly) Crowley of Tinahely. Dermot was the second of their four children, the others being Margaret, Alicia and Christopher. He also had a foster-brother, Liam, to whom Dermot was particularly attached. The family later moved to Dublin’s South Richmond Street and it was from here that Dermot Troy attended the Christian Brothers’ School on Synge Street, just a stone’s throw away from the Troy household, from the age of eight.
While Troy was a particularly bright student he was not particularly committed to the strictures of the Synge Street regime and, like many of his peers at that time, opted out of schooling once he had completed his primary education course and succeeded in the State’s examination. His musical studies were virtually nil apart from being a member of the school choir but even this was more by way of obligation than personal choice.
Dermot Troy began his working life when he was fourteen. The World War Two years, or The Emergency as they became quaintly known in Ireland, brought with them the constraints of rationing and scarcity although the Country had taken a neutral stance in the conflict. Dermot Troy had various jobs including one with the firm of Findlaters, a fairly extensive grocery chain in Dublin city and its suburbs. It is believed that Dermot delivered meat to the residence in Blackrock of Count John McCormack, the tenor of an earlier age whose extraordinary voice was much admired by Troy.
As the war progressed Dermot Troy joined the Local Defence Force. Initially formed in 1940 as the volunteer Local Security Force to assist the Garda Siochána, it was taken over by the Army in 1941 when it was lightly armed and formed into battalions. In 1943, around the time Dermot Troy joined, the group exceeded 103,000 members. In 1945, when he was nineteen, he pursued the idea of a military career but joined the British Royal Air Force (RAF) – possibly without the full consent of his parents – travelling to Belfast to enlist. Troy’s time with that force was spent mostly in England although he did undertake some duties further afield. It is believed that during one of these exercises abroad an accidental explosion damaged the hearing in his right ear – an affliction he bore with remarkable resilience, perseverance and tenacity in his later singing career. It was also something he never publicly disclosed preferring instead to keep it almost completely to himself.
Dermot Troy resigned from the RAF in 1948 when he retuned to Dublin by which time his family had moved to the suburb of Crumlin. He took a job at the now defunct Greenmount and Boyne Linen Company on Dublin Harold’s Cross Road. Around this time he became a member of the Go-Ray Choir, a small choral group with whom Dermot Troy’s sister Alicia also sang. The choir’s accompanist was May Cotter, an astute lady, who quickly recognised the innate talent waiting to be tapped in Troy. She arranged an audition for him with Michael O’Higgins, then professor of singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin’s Westland Row. Highly regarded, O’Higgins was one of the finest singing teachers of the day. The meeting took place in 1949 with the added encouragement of Troy’s friend Gerald Duffy who was already studying with O’Higgins. Duffy had persuaded Troy into various amateur musical society productions and variety concerts. These were challenging enough for Dermot Troy who learned everything by ear. Duffy remembers him at the time…“Even then, as an untutored singer, it was not difficult to see that he had a voice of unusual purity and a musical instinct and feeling for words that made singing a great pleasure to him and consequently to his audience”.
Troy attended his audition with O’Higgins who was instantly impressed by the quality of his voice and accepted him as a pupil without hesitation. It began an extraordinarily changed career for Dermot Troy, which despite its brevity would be one of enormous achievement. Writing in the Capuchin Annual, after Troy’s death some thirteen years later, O’Higgins remembered their first meeting … “ He proved to be a very personable young man, if not downright handsome. I recognised straight away that he had a voice of fine quality. He had a robustness somewhat different from those aspirants to fame who invariably inhibited their true vocal resources by imitating the late John McCormack”.
As O’Higgins explained in the same appreciation, Dermot Troy had not received any tuition and “this enabled me to begin work on his voice without having to correct any inlaid faults or preconceptions. He expressed his willingness to work hard and I put him on a scholarship. He turned out to be a keen and earnest student, not just content to do the work I demanded, but one who searched for knowledge on his own initiative. He had to face the problems of learning the languages, other than English, so necessary to a singer with serious ambitions. This was all the more laudable as I continually impressed on him the importance of the tenor getting into “active service” at as early an age as possible and the necessity to be ready when, and if, opportunity knocked”.
Shortly after the commencement of Dermot Troy’s studies with Michael O’Higgins, who advised him to leave his job in the Greenmount and Boyne Linen Company as the steam in the “shrinking room” was affecting his chest, he also came under the tutelage of Dorothy Stokes at the RIAM. Her classes gave him the necessary insight into theory and harmony. Despite the disparity in age between Troy and his classmates he endured the indignity of Ms Stokes occasionally caustic comments when he got this or that wrong in front of his much younger companions.
Early in 1950 Michael O’Higgins formed all of his students into a cohesive grouping, which he christened “The Thirteens”. He took the name from the number on the outer door of his rooms at the Academy. His far-seeing objective was twofold. In the first instant he wished to give his students practical experience in ensemble singing and secondly to provide them with a solid grounding in opera. This project bore fruit initially through winning the Culwick Cup at Dublin’s Feis Ceol in May 1950 with the sextet from Act II of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
This led O’Higgins to concentrate “The Thirteens” on their next goal – an operatic production. He chose Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte believing in the classical discipline of the composer. O’Higgins was also careful about his choice of singers but he believed Dermot Troy was really and entirely suitable for the central role of Tamino. O’Higgins invited the young coloratura soprano Eithne McGrath to undertake the taxing part of the Queen of the Night and while these two young artists were by then quite friendly these opposing roles of good and evil cemented their acquaintance into the staunch relationship which would culminate in their marriage in 1954.
The performances of Die Zauberflöte took place in the RIAM’s Dagg Hall in January 1951. They had the benefit of a professional orchestra led by Jack Cheatle, a fine musician who was also leader of the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra. Describing Dermot Troy in the title role, Michael O’Higgins wrote “he sang this most difficult, but beautiful, music with almost professional élan”.
The success of Die Zauberflöte led O’Higgins to consider Mozart again for the following year. He chose Don Giovanni and instead of three performances, as was the case with Die Zauberflöte, extended the run to six consecutive evenings from 28 January to 2 February 1952, which in fact made quite a demand on the stamina, if not the voices, of the young singers. The obvious choice for Don Ottavio was Dermot Troy. The opera was sung in English but on the opening night the audience demanded an encore from Troy following his aria “Il mio tesoro”. Much to O’Higgins surprise Troy repeated his performance but this time singing in excellent Italian according to O’Higgins, who was also conducting the performance.
This also pointed to Dermot Troy’s efforts at extending his own capabilities. As his widow Eithne later maintained, “Dermot had an agile mind, eager, almost hungry, for knowledge”. The earlier success of Die Zauberflöte introduced Troy to a wider public and he began to undertake an increasing number of engagements in Dublin and elsewhere. Among these was a concert by “The Thirteens” in Dublin’s famous Gresham Hotel in which Troy sang, unusually, “Nessun dorma” – Calaf’s aria from Act III of Puccini’s Turandot. He also took the tenor part in the rarely heard Les sept paroles du Christ (Seven Last Words) of 1867 by Théodore Dubois (1837-1924), professor at the Paris Conservatoire and organist at the church of the Madeleine. Another event in 1952 was set to bring a new dimension to Dermot Troy’s career.
Quite soon after his achievement in Don Giovanni, but without any connection to it, came the announcement of a competition for young male singers to coincide with the release and extraordinary success of the film The Great Caruso, starring Mario Lanza. The national newspaper – the Sunday Independent – in association with the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sponsored the competition’s Irish division. Preliminary rounds were held at various centres around the Country with Dermot Troy winning the Dublin area section. The final round took place before an audience of two-and-a-half thousand at the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street and Troy selected “Spirto gentil” – Ferdinand’s romance from Act IV of Donizetti’s La Favorita as his test piece.
In his appreciation of Dermot Troy in the Capuchin Annual of 1962, Professor Anthony Hughes, who was his accompanist in the competition, recalled the occasion and referred to the aria as “being very difficult, lying awkwardly high and requiring limpid purity of line, tremendous breath control and a golden stream of tone…The unaffected beauty of his singing proclaimed him a worthy victor”. The competition final, which had acquired remarkable public interest in advance due to the popularity of the film, was broadcast live from Radio Éireann.
Winning the Irish section meant Dermot Troy travelling to London for the competition’s overall final. It was only then realised that, through some misunderstanding on the part of the Irish organisers, the competition, which continued to enjoy the backing of the film company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the impressario Harold Fielding, had not been restricted to tenors but had been open to all male voices. The overall final took place at London’s Scala Theatre on 5 May 1952. Harold Fielding headed the adjudicating panel and the jury also included Kenneth Wright, head of BBCTV music, Arthur Davies, director of the then famous Luton Girls’ Choir and Oscar Preuss, manager of the recording company Parlophone. Their final choice, and a year’s free training in Milan, went to the bass Forbes Robinson (1926-1987), a member of an illustrious English theatrical family, who was born in Macclesfield and began his working life as a repertory actor and choral singer. He joined the Covent Garden Company in 1954 and was later (1970) the first English Don Giovanni there since Charles Santley in 1868. His repertoire covered over seventy operas and he sang the title role in the première of Michael Tippett’s King Priam in 1962.
Strangely the competition did not accommodate a second prize (it was against the governing rules) but the adjudicators, hugely impressed by Troy’s performance, decided on the spur of the moment to offer him a special scholarship. This eventually brought a move to London with Troy taking up residence there. He was introduced to the renowned Italian tenor Dino Borgioli (1891-1960), who was particularly associated with the interpretation of Mozart and Donizetti roles. He was one of the most stylish and musicianly lyric tenors of the inter-war years. By 1952 he had an extensive teaching practice and lived, incidentally, in London’s Troy Court. Borgioli was so impressed by Dermot Troy’s singing that he insisted on taking full charge of his vocal tuition. However, Troy did not remain very long with him, being disappointed with and anxious about Borgioli’s method of developing technique. Even though this man had published a famous treatise on this art Troy believed Borgioli was not the teacher for him and their relationship proved fractious.
But Troy was undeterred as a boost came through him being runner-up in an Anglo-Austrian Musical Society’s Richard Tauber scholarship. Besides his career was also beginning to take shape as he was invited to join a small touring company – Opera for All. Sponsored by the British Arts Council, it had Bryan Balkwill, Reginald Goodall, Raymond Leppard and Geoffrey Parsons among its directors and repetiteurs. The Company travelled extensively and Troy sang the roles of Don Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Alfred in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in various far-flung centres. He returned to Dublin in October 1952 for two performances with the Dublin Operatic Society at the Olympia Theatre where he was heard as Don Caesar de Bazan in Wallace’s Maritana. An engagement with the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra followed with Troy as the soloist in Aloys Fleischmann’s Three Songs at the Phoenix Hall on 11 November 1952 conducted by the composer.
The following year had another concert in Dublin’s Gresham Hotel on 20 February January 1953 with “The Thirteens”. This included one of the most evocative works of the 1920s – Constant Lambert’s setting of the exotic Sacheverell Sitwell poem The Rio Grande with the distinguished pianist Charles Lynch (1906-1984). The year was also very important for Troy as it brought a short English tour with the renowned Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) and his first engagements with Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The invitation, without audition or further ado, to join the exclusive Company came from its chief coach – Hungarian-born Jani Strasser (1902-1978) – who had been present at the London finals of the Caruso Competition. Initially Troy was a member of the chorus for the 1953 Season but he was also requested to understudy several roles and to ‘cover’ a number of others. The repertoire consisted of Gluck’s Alceste; Rossini’s La Cenerentola; Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos; and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Cosi fan tutte. At the end of the Glyndebourne run, the Company appeared at the Edinburgh Festival with La Cenerentola, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Mozart’s Idomeneo.
All this meant hard work for Troy but this was something he never shirked and as Eithne Troy explained … “He loved his time in Glyndebourne in the glorious surroundings of the Sussex Downs and in the company of some of the most famous names of the operatic world including the conductors Vittorio Gui and Carlo Maria Giulini. He also had the chance to study with repetiteurs who were highly respected in their fields. His own world was full and happy. He loved the camaraderie and moved easily among the cosmopolitan scene, which was the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He even joined Glyndebourne’s cricket eleven and played for the team against a local side on a number of occasions. For further relaxation he also doodled a bit and sketched a good deal. He did pencil portraits of some of his friends and fellow artists, which I later found among the pages of his scores”.
Troy returned to Dublin for the autumn and winter of 1953/4 and among other things undertook the role of Karl in Romberg’s operetta The Student Prince for the Mullingar Musical Society in October 1953 and that of Hardress Cregan in Benedict’s The Lily of Killarney for the Dublin Operatic Society at the Olympia Theatre during the first week of November. Before returning to Glyndebourne Troy embarked on a short Irish tour during May 1954 with the Dublin Operatic Society as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata. Eithne McGrath, now Dermot Troy’s fiancée, was his Violetta in Armagh, Drogheda, Dundalk and Limerick. The couple would marry in a glittering ceremony in Dublin’s Christ the King Church on 4October 1954. But prior to that and Glyndebourne, Troy had another English tour with Opera for All.
Glyndebourne’s 1954 Season presented six works – Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Gluck’s Alceste; the first stage production in Britain of Busoni’s Arlecchino; Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos; Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Troy was again understudying and ‘covering’ roles as well as being a chorus member in most of the operas. On 13 June 1954, as the Maltese tenor Paul Asciak scheduled for the role of Evander in Alceste was suddenly taken ill, Dermot Troy was asked to step into the part. His success was immediate but the acclaim did not disturb his equilibrium. In order to witness all the Season’s performances in which he was not directly involved he embraced the humble task of programme selling so as to be present in the theatre each evening.
The Glyndebourne Company was again part of the Edinburgh Festival in 1954, this time with the French version of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory with Troy as the Young Nobleman, Ariadne auf Naxos and Cosi fan tutte. The Company also gave two performances of La Cenerentola at the Städtische Oper in West Berlin as part of the divided city’s Festival. Press and public were highly enthusiastic with “Perfekter Rossini aus England” one of the banner headlines. Following his wedding and honeymoon in West Cork and Donegal, with a car loaned by a relative, Troy was back in November with the Dublin Operatic Society as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia on a short country tour under the baton of Fred O’Callaghan.
The first three months of 1955 brought an unusual tour of North America for a group of young Irish artists under the direction of the eminent pianist and teacher Kitty O’Callaghan. A formidable but warm-hearted character, she was invariably known and addressed as “Mrs O’Callaghan” and was Radio Éireann’s first official accompanist and played for many international musicians visiting Ireland. The group, titled The Irish Festival Singers, was drawn from the cream of the younger talent of the day and included a number of “The Thirteens”. Among the ladies voices were Veronica Dunne, who was also a member of the Royal Opera Covent Garden, Claire Kelleher, Celestine Kelly, Eithne McGrath and Sylvia O’Brien. Irene Gilbert, one of the leaders of haute couture in Ireland at the time designed their dresses. The male contingent consisted of Arthur Agnew, James Cuthbert, Liam Devally, Austin Gaffney, Tomás Ó Suilleabháin and Dermot Troy. The violinist Terry O’Connor-Glasgow, who was the leader of the Radio Éireann Orchestra in the 1930s and 1940s, conductor of the Dublin String Orchestra and music director of the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society, was also the harpist of the group, having principally learned the instrument for the venture.
The fifty-venue tour, which began in Canada, ended at Carnegie Hall on St Patrick’s Day in New York where they had already appeared on 28 January. It was an arduous trip with Veronica Dunne, Austin Gaffney and Dermot Troy carrying most of the solo work. The programmes included many Irish airs specially arranged for the tour but Troy’s solos included Arnold Bax’ sensitive setting of Fiona Macleod’s (actually William Sharp (1855-1905) who wrote under that pseudonym from1895) poem “The White Peace”. It was less than a complete conquest as the Irish/American audiences expected a more standard repertoire. However, one of the tour reviewers, William M Clark in The Springfield Union, Massachusetts referring to Troy wrote… “Dermot Troy, tenor, sings with remarkable enunciation and a complete feeling for text. Seldom have we heard the air “She is far from the Land” sung with greater effectiveness. Hamilton Harty’s splendid song “My Lagan Love” was also admirably sung”. In a second review Clark, mentioned, “Troy’s tenor voice is substantial and he colors it effectively”. Another reviewer, J Dorsey Callaghan in the Detroit Free Press wrote, “Dermot Troy reached into the recesses of the heart to sing of “Dark Rosaleen””.
Once back in Dublin towards the end of March 1955, Troy began preparing for his return to Glyndebourne. At the same time he was being approached by Covent Garden but there was great reluctance on the part of the Glyndebourne management to allow him to even audition for the London house. Eventually to Troy’s relief Glyndebourne relented and having completed six performances of the Young Nobleman in Le Comte Ory and six of Dr Caius in Verdi’s Falstaff when the Company visited the Edinburgh Festival in August and September, Dermot Troy joined the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with a three-year contract. As a result Dermot and Eithne Troy took up residence in London’s Herne Hill district in a house owned by their Irish friend. John Lewis Crosby.
During the 1955/56 Season at Covent Garden Troy undertook eighty-four performances with the Company in London and on tour. These included twenty-six of El Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen; seven of Gastone de Letorières in Verdi’s La Traviata; eleven of Nathanael in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann; ten of the first Priest and eight of Monostatos (a role on which Troy was not particularly keen although he was “excellently cast” according to one London critic) in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte; ten of Vašek in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride; seven of Tchekalinsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades and five of Matteo Borsa in Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Regarding Troy’s Vašek, a role in which he followed the distinguished English tenor Peter Pears, the reviewer in The Guardian commented it “was excellently done by Dermot Troy, who exposed the character’s absurdity without descending into excess of caricature”. Another critic wrote, “Dermot Troy resisted the temptation to be merely funny as the stuttering and slow-witted Vašek, and his blend of serio-comic and semi-pathetic was perfectly performed making this bashful swain both lovable and entirely convincing”. This recruitment into Covent Garden naturally extended Troy’s repertoire and experience, engaged him with an increasing number of established singers, conductors and producers and also brought him an element of acclaim from both press and public. Another Irish tenor, James Johnston (1903-1991), who was Troy’s senior by a number of years and who also sang in Covent Garden, maintained, “It was at Covent Garden that his [Troy’s] gifts developed and where his wonderful voice was heard at its best”.
Troy was back in Dublin during March 1956 for the birth of his and Eithne’s first daughter Alannah and returned briefly for one of Radio Éireann’s Sunday “Prom” concerts on 28 October 1956 at the Gaiety Theatre. Conducted by John Hollingsworth he sang three arias – “Waft her, angels” from Handel’s Jephtha; Mozart’s “Dalla sua pace” from Don Giovanni and “O, Paradis, sorti de l’onde” from Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine.
During 1957 the recording company Columbia decided to record Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006) as the Countess Madeleine. It was to be conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, and produced by Walter Legge (1906-1979), who was Schwarzkopf’s husband. At her insistence Dermot Troy was chosen for the difficult part of the Italian tenor. Indeed, Schwarzkopf is reputed to have said… “This is the voice for which we have been waiting”. Rehearsals took place during the Salzburg Festival in August 1957 and the opera was recorded in London’s Kingsway Hall between 2 and 11 September. Troy portrayed his half-comic, half-serious character beautifully and the opera has been re-released on a number of occasions since then and is currently (2007) available on CD. The cast also included Christa Ludwig, Anna Moffo, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hans Hotter and Eberhard Wächter with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
The year also took Troy back to Dublin on 27 September for a Radio Éireann concert performance in Dublin’s Phoenix Hall of Monteverdi’s dramatic scena of 1624, to a text by Torquato Tasso, Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. Under the Italian conductor Carlo Franci, soprano Veronica Dunne and mezzo Mary Tinney, who later became a member of the Irish Government’s diplomatic corps, joined Troy.
The tenor remained at Covent Garden for the 1956/7 and 1957/8 Seasons with an amazing eighty-two performances in the former and an astounding one hundred and three in the latter. He added Don Basilio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro; Flavio in Bellini’s Norma, with Maria Callas in the title role; Ulrich Eisslinger in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Hylas and Iopas in Berlioz’ Les Troyens and Ruiz in Verdi’s Il Trovatore to his repertoire in 1956/7. The eminent critic Ernest Newman, who found little to admire in John Gielgud’s production of Les Troyens still wrote, “the singer of the sailor Hylas’s little ditty (Dermot Troy) near the end of the opera gave us a welcome combination of agreeable voice and fine musical style”.
In the following season came Messenger in Verdi’s Aida; A young Servant in Richard Strauss’ Elektra; Roderigo in Verdi’s Otello; A Sailor in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde; Father Confessor of the Convent in the first performances in Britain of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In the Poulenc work, which was given eleven times including two on tour and conducted by Rafael Kubelik, Veronica Dunne as Sister Blanche joined Troy in two performances and the casts also included Joan Sutherland, Sylvia Fisher, Elsie Morrison, Jeanette Sinclair and Jean Watson. Troy also sang in five performances of Verdi’s La Traviata as Gastone de Letorières with Maria Callas as Violetta.
On 10 June 1958, Covent Garden celebrated its centenary with a special programme in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Dermot Troy, who was heard in an extract from Britten’s Peter Grimes, was among the star-studded casts in various operatic scenes. Among them were Maria Meneghini Callas and Forbes Robinson; Blanche Thebom and Jon Vickers; and Joan Sutherland with John Lanigan. Troy’s contract with the prestigious London Company concluded on 19 July 1958 with a final performance of Les Troyens at the end of the season. A reviewer in Opera magazine commented, “This was also the last night of Dermot Troy’s contract, for he goes to Mannheim next season where we wish him good luck. His singing of Hylas’s song was again a treasured moment”.
In the earlier part of 1958 Troy had been approached by the Mannheim State Opera to audition. He did so and was immediately offered a contract as the Company’s first lyric tenor to begin in September 1958. Troy was overjoyed, is slightly apprehensive, to accept and the Troy family – by this time there were two daughters Alannah and Mabel – moved to Germany. Housing was still a problem in the post-war situation but they were settled in an apartment owned by the Nationaltheater with the interesting address at Richard Wagner Strasse, 93. Troy immediately set out to become proficient in German, which was the language of the Mannheim opera house and a period of intense activity began. Troy was also able to detach himself from his financial obligations to the agency of Harold Fielding, on whose books he had remained since winning the Great Caruso Competition. As time had gone on these had become ever more demanding.
In Mannheim Dermot Troy was principally heard as Mozart’s Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni but he was also Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola; Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia;Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea; Adam in Zeller’s Der Vogelhändler and the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto.
In the meantime, the leading German agency firm of Schmidt und Schultz also approached Troy and he accepted their offer to act on his behalf. As his contract with Mannheim was fairly flexible he was permitted to undertake a number of guest appearances in other houses throughout the Federal German Republic. But there was an interesting beginning to Troy’s career with the Mannheim Company. Because he had joined it as ‘an outsider’, without going through the German system, a strike was called with those opposing his contract demanding its cancellation. A meeting was held with the Intendant who actually agreed with the complainants. “Yes”, he said, “this young man does not have the proper credentials. However, if you can find me someone who has and whose voice is as good, or maybe you can find someone better, then I will let Herr Troy go”. That was the end of the affair and the last incident of its kind in Troy’s career. Dermot Troy never referred to the matter, even to his wife, nor did he hold any bitterness towards the perpetrators.
The year 1958 had also brought the birth in February of the Troys second daughter, Mabel and in November Dermot Troy was back in Dublin for the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which opened on 24 November. Produced by Anthony Besch and conducted by Bryan Balkwill, Troy was heard in the role of Don Ottavio with the title role sung by Geraint Evans. Joan Sutherland was the Donna Anna, Patricia Bartlett the Donna Elvira and Patricia Clark the Zerlina. Leporello was sung by Martin Lawrence with Bruce Dargavel as the Commendatore and Harold Blackburn as Masetto. Writing in the Evening Herald of 25 November, Brian Quinn thought Troy “seemed nervous early on in the opera, but steadily gained authority and soon was singing with style, spinning many sweet high phrases”. In the Irish Press of the same day, Robert Johnson mentioned Troy’s…. “Impressive ease and fluency. Certainly, he reached unforgettable heights of expressiveness in “Il mio tesoro””. Mary MacGoris in the Irish Independent of 25 November referred to a slight mishap in “Dalla sua pace” but then “[he] sang splendidly through “Il mio tesoro” for which he received a deserved ovation. He also contrived to suggest a certain amount of character in Ottavio, which is no mean feat”.
As a result of Schmidt und Schultz acting on his behalf, Troy began undertaking an increasing number of guest appearances outside Mannheim. This added to his workload but no matter what role he was offered, no matter how strenuous the task or how short the time, he would say, when his wife might have preferred an easier option, “If I do not sing it then someone else will and I will loose the opportunity next time round”.
Away from Mannheim, where one critic wrote of him as being “a great hope for the German Theatre” while another described Troy’s singing as “breath-taking”, he was heard in Augsburg, Bonn, Braunschweig, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Köln, Schwetzingen, Stuttgart, Trier, Wiesbaden, Würzburg and Wuppertal. Occasionally Troy would be expected to switch between German and Italian for some of Mozart’s heroes but he took this task in his stride despite needing to almost relearn the roles. In Rhein-Neckar Zeitung Walter Stein wrote, “Dermot Troy, after his promising Tamino [and] now as Ottavio, shows that he is wonderfully suited for Mozart and Donizetti…. His singing comes from the heart”. Commenting in Rheinpflaz, Kurt Unold wrote, “Dermot Troy gave an excellent performance of Ottavio with his captivating singing of “Num ihrem Frieden weih’ ich mein Leben [Dalla sua pace]”.
Troy also gave a number of oratorio performances throughout Federal Germany and his love of the German art song – the Lied – was also nurtured during this time. Eithne Troy believes lieder singing became his first love but a career along that path was unthinkable then and only followed by those already enjoying a worldwide reputation. He did, however, give a number of lieder recitals for various German Radio stations as well as for Radio Éireann and Eithne Troy recalls the Brahms Op 71/5 love song – Minnelied – the setting of Ludwig Hölty. “Dermot’s performance had a certain magic, which is difficult to describe. Was it the sound he made, or the sheer ease with which he sang it, or the total commitment of his performance? It was just thrilling. Perhaps his greatest vocal attribute was that he sang from his heart. There were neither bar lines nor other aids of any kind in his performances, which invariably came from the heart”.
During February 1960 Dermot Troy was also able to return to Covent Garden for five performances of David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and in April that year he was invited to sing a guest performance of Belmonte in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Hamburg. During the interval he was approached by its Intendant, the Swiss-born composer and administrator Rolf Liebermann (1910-1999) and offered a contract to join his prestigious Company. During the relatively short time between then and his death in 1962 Dermot Troy sang forty-four performances in nine roles and in the summer recess in Hamburg he appeared at the nearby Herrenhausen Festival in, unusually for him, Alessandro Scarlatti’s only wholly comic opera Il Trionfo dell’Onore (The Triumph of Honour) written in 1718 for Naples. In it he sang the role of Don Riccardo. He also returned to the Glyndebourne Company for its appearances at the Edinburgh Festival when he undertook four performances in the role of Leandro in Busoni’s theatrical-capriccio Arlecchino, which was first produced in Zurich in 1917, in late August and early September. The opera was sung in the original German but he had to learn both of these roles knowing he might not be required to perform them again due to their comparative rarity. The BBC broadcast the Busoni work.
The year also found Troy in Dublin again following his Edinburgh Festival appearances. On 13 September he was with the Radio Eireann Light Orchestra, under conductor Dermot O’Hara, in its Portobello Studio, where he recorded some twenty tracks for future radio broadcasts. In the event these recordings were shelved until 1979 when fourteen of them were issued by Mulligan Music and RTE on vinyl LP, entitled “Songs to Remember”. Troy also appeared with the Orchestra in Dublin’s Phoenix Hall on 17 September and a charity concert at the Gaiety Theatre in aid of the St Vincent de Paul Society the following evening. Accompanied by Kitty O’Callaghan in the latter his portion of the programme amounted to six arias beginning with “Una furtiva lagrima” from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Mylio’s fragrant Aubade “Vainement, ma bien-aimêe” from Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys and Vasco de Gama’s aria “O, paradis, sorti de l’onde” from Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine followed. In the second half of the evening came “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, the Flower Song – “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” – from Bizet’s Carmen and Federico’s Lament – “É la solita storia” – from Cilea’s L’Arlesiana.
Among the other artists in the concert were the sopranos Anne Cant, who later sang for several Seasons with the Berne and other European opera houses, Frances McDermott, who had studied in both Venice and Rome and the West Indian bass Othmar Remy Arthur. Unusually this charity event was reviewed, most likely because of the public interest in Troy. In the Irish Press the next day (19 September), Robert Johnson considered his voice had “developed considerably – a wide even range of pure tenor tone, used with assured and controlled technique and governed by an innate artistry”.
In the popular Radio Éireann Saturday evening programme, conducted by Eimear Ó Broin on 17 September, Troy was heard in Mozart’s “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” and in “Glück, das mir verblieb” from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt. Writing in the Evening Press, its critic John O’Donovan commented on Troy’s voice that…. “There is new strength and assurance that makes one prick up one’s ears…. My own feeling is one of rejoicing that Mr Troy is confidently headed in the right direction”. The unnamed Evening Mail reviewer was “impressed by his technical command as he sang this aria [“Dies Bildnis”] with a perfect sense of style. Later in the programme we heard his exquisite phrasing in “Glück, das mir verblieb””. Following these ‘home’ events Troy went to Hamburg for further guest appearances but was back in Dublin again for the birth of his third daughter Vivien before the year was out.
In the first week of January 1961 Troy took part in a recording in Hamburg of Mozart’s incomplete Zaïde for North German Radio. Conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, who incidentally had a memorable association with the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra in the early 1950s, Troy sang the role of Gomatz, with Edith Mathis as Zaïde and Benno Kusche as Osmin. In the following week, on 15 January, Dermot Troy returned to Dublin for the first of the “Winter Proms” – a series of Sunday evening concerts given by the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra at the Gaiety Theatre. For his programme he chose three Mozart arias – two from Idomeneo and one from Cosi fan tutte. The conductor was Hungarian-born Tibor Paul, then Radio Éireann’s director of music and conductor-in-chief, who is reputed to have told the singer… “You have chosen three very difficult arias Mr Troy”. While that was so, Mary MacGoris in the Irish Independent on the following day, 16 January, wrote… “The Irish tenor, Dermot Troy, sang a group of Mozart arias with considerable artistry and displayed a measure of vocal power which Dublin has not heard from him before, though it was noted by visitors to the Edinburgh Festival last autumn.
“This robust quality was not so well suited to Idamante’s aria “Vedrommi intorno” as to Idomeneo’s own “Torna la pace [al core]” but both were notable for sustained feeling and a sense of line as was the lyrical and beautifully sung “Un’ aura amorosa” from Cosi fan tutte”.
In the Irish Press on 16 January, Robert Johnson reported that Troy’s “singing has matured immensely and his fine voice has a good middle and top range that can be equal to all demands that are put upon it, almost suggesting that singing is the easiest thing in the world. His “Un’ aura amorosa” had great tenderness of feeling and “Torna la pace al core” had all the requisite fluency and flexibility”.
The year 1961 also found Dermot Troy at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels in April for three performances of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. The production by Jean-Marc Landier and conducted by André Vandernoot was also seen at the Sarah Bernhardt Théâtre de la Ville in Paris in May when the eminent Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar was the Pamina to Troy’s Tamino as part of the Théâtre des Nations Festival. During May 1961 he returned to Mannheim for a new production of Verdi’s Otello by Ernst Poettgen in which he sang the role of Cassio and appeared in Hamburg in both Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Cosi fan tutte that month.
In the Otello Troy’s close friend, the American baritone Thomas Tipton was singing the role of Iago and he recalls a scene during Act I where he and Troy had a very strenuous duel. Tipton noticed Troy being obviously in pain and feared he would be unable to finish the Act. Despite that Troy did continue but during the interval a doctor was summoned and medication administered. It was, in fact, the initial indication that something was wrong. On 1 June 1961 Dermot suffered his first heart attack. He was hospitalised for six weeks and was ordered complete rest and told to avoid exertion and anxiety of any kind. The Troy family returned to Dublin and took a house in Santry owned by a friend to enable Dermot to recuperate. Fortunately the Hamburg State Opera was entirely sympathetic in its treatment of the situation.
The Troys remained in Dublin for the next six months and following much deliberation among the extended family decided to return to Hamburg post-Christmas 1961. Accommodation had to be found as they had released their previous apartment. As it happened the house of their baritone friend Heinz Blankenburg was free as he was in the throes of moving to the State Opera in Vienna. So the Troys took up residence on the Dobenplatz, although Troy was there initially on his own. He resumed work almost immediately and between 16 January 1961 and the end of the Season in June Dermot Troy gave thirty-four performances in nine productions. These were – ten as Belmonte, six as Borsa, four as Tamino, four as Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, which was an addition to his repertoire, three as Ottavio, three as Cassio, two as Count Almaviva, one as Ferrando and one as Daland’s Steersman in Wagner’s Die Fliegende Holländer.
The Hamburg Season actually ended in Granada where the Company had been invited to give two performances, on 25 and 27 June, of Die Entführung aus dem Serail in the courtyard of the old Moorish Palace, the Alhambra. The American soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs was the Constanze in the production conducted by Horst Stein. Dobbs, who had partnered Troy on many occasions in Covent Garden and in Hamburg, recalled the lovely patio, formerly used by the harem wives of the Spanish-Moorish sultans, as being the perfect backdrop for Mozart’s opera. Reminiscing on Dermot Troy she remembered “the lovely happy spirit which prevailed about him. And the sound of his beautiful voice”.
Besides his busy Hamburg schedule during these months Dermot Troy had been back in Dublin during April 1962 to arrange his family’s eventual transfer to Hamburg and to sing in a performance of Bach’s B minor Mass in the Olympia Theatre. Conducted by Tibor Paul the other soloists were Lucilla Indrigo, Bernadette Greevy, and James Shaw with the Radio Éireann Singers and Choral Society, the Culwick Choral Society and the Olivian Singers with the Radio Éireann Symphony Orchestra. It was a memorable occasion as performances of Bach’s great Mass were still rare enough in Dublin at that time. It was also the culmination of a “Concert Hall Fortnight” – a series of events with the purpose of fund raising for a national concert hall in Dublin.
He also took part in a Radio Éireann studio concert. This included the first Irish performance of Carl Orff’s Catulli Carmina. Described by the composer as ‘Ludi scaenici’ and a parable on the power of Eros, it was premiered in Leipzig in 1943. Dealing with the unhappy love affair between Catullus and Lesbia, the text was by the composer after the Latin poet of the title. It was scored for four pianos, percussion and a capella chorus with solo soprano and tenor. Conducted by Hans Waldemar Rosen, Eithne Troy joined her husband for the occasion. There were further novelties in Hamburg between 12 and 16 June 1962 when Troy recorded Bartok’s Cantata profana of 1930 for tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra and Szymanowski’s Third Symphony (The Song of the Night) of 1914/16. The sung text was taken from the 13th century Persian poet Jalal ad-Dim ar-Rumi and translated into Polish by Tadeusz Micinski. Bogo Leskovic conducted both works with the North German Radio Choir and Orchestra. The Bartok, with the baritone Wladimir Rudzjak, was sung in Hungarian and the Szymanowski in Polish.
Following the Hamburg performances in Granada the Troys spent a brief holiday in Spain and Ireland before returning to Germany to prepare for the 1962/63 Season. Dermot Troy had also been engaged for a television recording of Haydn’s opera Infedelta Delusa, or to give it a German title Untreue lohnt Nicht, in which he sang the role of Nencio. The opera was repeated at the Herrenhausen Festival, about which the critic Erich Limmert wrote in the Hannoversche Algemein Zeitung… “One was delighted with the tenor Dermot Troy as the rich suitor, Nencio; he forced a little at first but then his tone became liquid – above all in the laughing aria”. Sadly the TV recording was transmitted after Troy’s untimely death.
Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte was one of the Season’s opening works with Dermot Troy as Ferrando. Its first performance was on 29 August and sadly it was to be Dermot Troy’s valediction as he suffered a massive heart attack, which proved fatal, on 6 September 1962. He had just phoned his wife Eithne who was actually in Dublin attending the funeral of her father. On feeling unwell he called a local priest and was able to receive the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. Dermot Troy’s body was flown back to Dublin for burial in Mount Jerome Cemetery. His funeral took place from Christ the King Church in the Dublin suburb of Cabra on 10 September 1962. He had been married there eight years earlier.
Many tributes were paid but none more expressive than that of Mary MacGoris in the Irish Independent on 7 September 1962. “Dermot Troy was one of the rarer types of singer, a true lyric tenor with a voice of naturally beautiful quality. To this inborn gift he had added the polish that comes from careful study and constant work until his voice was an instrument that responded perfectly to any and all demands of musicianship.
“His singing was notable for a sense of line and for the expressive phrasing, which projected an emotion completely without resort to exaggerated vocal tricks. It was these qualities, allied to a remarkable purity of tone and a feeling for style, which ideally fitted him for the subtle art of Mozart singing – an art in which he had won admiration and a leading place even in Germany, its home.
“That he sang relatively seldom in Ireland was not due to lack of appreciation but partly to the modern demands on artists to travel the world and partly to the poor resources, economic and artistic, of a country which does not afford to maintain its musicians.
“He was the most unassuming of men and neither international success nor the acclaim of audiences affected his essentially modest and gentle personality or his serious attitude towards his work. At the age of thirty-five, as with most singers, his voice was just beginning to reach its fullest state of development. His tragically early death is a loss not only to Ireland and Europe but to the art of singing everywhere”.
The Capuchin Annual, a remarkable chronicle throughout its life, included a number of tributes to Dermot Troy in its 1962 edition. His friend Gerald Duffy recalled… “His quiet, easy manner, his sincerity, his wonderful way of speaking to you even in the midst of a crowd, that made you feel that you were the most important person in the world to him, his charity – not just the hand in the pocket kind [and] he had plenty of that too – but the real charity, the sort that would never allow him to hear criticism of others without, in his quiet way, reminding us that none of us is perfect; his charm, his familiar way with children, his love of this country of ours and the people of it. These are some of the qualities that form my memories of Dermot Troy. The world has lost a great artist, Ireland a great ambassador, and I a great friend”.
The producer Ernst Poettgen, who worked with Dermot Troy in Mannheim, referred to his “unusually friendly disposition”. Poettgen also seemed to contradict the mild contretemps following Troy’s arrival in Mannheim as he wrote… “From the first he established with each member of this gathering [the Mannheim artists] a definite personal relationship. The remarkable thing about it is, that from almost the first moment, Dermot Troy was not a “newcomer”, but was accepted as a fully-fledged member of the cast. The secret of this was his refreshing and expansive personality… I must point out Dermot was not without fault. The weakness that springs most readily to mind is that Dermot often came “out of the jam-pot” in the charming colloquial expression used in Hamburg, which means that he could become lost in a daydream. In my professional capacity as producer, this abstractedness would irritate me, but one could never be violently angry with Dermot.
Besides, when one worked seriously with him, he was the personification of concentration, a stimulating colleague; to rehearse with him was never boring; he had his own views on [the] interpretation of a part but he was always prepared to hear, and to listen with docility to, the interpretation by another… As his director, I greatly admired him for his capability to portray and interpret so many difficult and divergent operatic roles… If opera may be regarded as the supreme expression of the musical art then Dermot Troy was a true example of the type of artiste one wishes to find in opera today. Rarely do we find an artiste with a voice extraordinarily beautiful and expressive and, in addition, one gifted with high intelligence and an artistic sense linked to a marked personal good taste… His performances, which I loved, were always polished and will be forever remembered by me and by many others. His memory will live in us as long as the theatre holds a place in the esteem of men”.
Thomas Tipton probably best summed up Dermot Troy’s generous nature. “Dermot is one of the few I have known who was not jealous of the success of others. In fact he was happy when his colleagues achieved successes and he was always the first to praise one’s talents. He was the one who made the leading German opera agency aware of my talent…. Dermot was not only one of my best friends and colleagues, but I felt, he was a brother to me.” Tipton had already named his own son – Dermot – in appreciation of their friendship.
To commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary on 6 September 1987 of Dermot Troy’s death a portrait of the singer by the artist Tom Ryan RHA was unveiled at the National Concert Hall in Dublin by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Ben Briscoe TD. It was followed by a concert with the Dublin County Choir under conductor Colin Block, soprano Angela Feeney, tenor John Treleaven and baritone Peter McBrien. The accompanist was Courtney Kenny.
These discs of Dermot Troy have come from various sources and follow long and meticulous collection. They will serve as a fitting tribute to a unique Irish singer and reflect, through his voice, something of his uncommon artistry. They also capture the warmth and sincerity of his character and indicate that the comments of his contemporaries were neither misplaced nor exaggerated. There was infectiousness about his personality that endeared him, not only to his friends and colleagues, but to a wider public, particularly in Germany, who admired the sheer musical quality of his voice and the depth of his interpretative ability. His mastery of languages came with clarity of diction, which was exemplary. Truly Dermot Troy was a man for all seasons.
(These extensive & scrupulously-researched notes were originally compiled in 2007 by Pat O’Kelly for a projected 4CD set containing most of Dermot Troy’s surviving recordings; it remained unused and the scope of the CD reissue was progressively shortened first to a double CD set then, eventually, to a single CD “Dermot Troy Remembered” which was issued by RTE LyricFM.)
It is hoped to present some or all of the recordings which did not make it onto the CD release in due course
| DERMOT TROY – CHRONOLOGY OF PERFORMANCES |
| 1948 |
| Charity Concert Crumlin |
| RAF Club Dublin |
| Michael O’Higgins RIAM |
| 1949 |
| ? |
| 1950 |
| Feis Ceoil – Lucia Sextet – 50/51?? – Charles Wilson Cup ??? |
| 1951 |
| Jan 18, 19,20 – Tamino – Magic Flute – Thirteen’s – RIAM |
| Sep 30 – 1st Annual Concert – Aberdeen Room, Gresham Hotel – Thirteen’s |
| 1952 |
| Mon Jan 28 to Sat Feb 2 – Ottavio – Don Giovanni – Thirteen’s – RIAM |
| Mar 29 – Caruso Competition – Irish Final – Adelphi Cinema |
| ?? – Nemorino – L’Elisir D’Amore – Rathmines Town Hall (per Tony O’Dalaigh) |
| May 5 – London Final |
| Study with Dino Borgioli |
| British Arts Council Tour – Opera for All – Ramiro –La Cenerentola – + Geoffrey Parsons, Raymond Leppard |
| Runner-up Richard Tauber Scholarship – Anglo Austrian Musical Society |
| Die Fledermaus – Alfred – (where??) Opera for All ??? |
| Oct 30, Nov 1 –Don Caesar – Maritana – DOS –Olympia Theatre, Dublin |
| Nov 11 – Fleischmann Songs with RESO – Phoenix Hall |
| 1953 |
| Feb 20 – Lambert’s Rio Grande – Thirteen’s – Michael O’Higgins / Charles Lynch |
| Mar ?? – On tour with Gigli?? |
| Glyndebourne – chorus/ understudy/cover – Edinburgh with Glyndebourne |
| Oct – Karl – Student Prince – Mullingar |
| Nov 2,5,7m – Hardress Cregan – Lily of Killarney – DOS – Olympia Theatre Dublin |
| 1954 |
| Feb 28 – Ramiro –La Cenerentola – Opera for All – Globe Plymouth |
| May 7 – Alfredo – La Traviata with Eithne as Violetta – DOS – City Theatre, Limerick |
| May 14 – La Traviata – Drogheda |
| May 21 – La Traviata – Dundalk Eithne believes also in Armagh. |
| Glyndebourne for Season and tour to Edinburgh: |
| – Jun 13 –- Evandre – Alceste – Gluck |
| – Aug 23, 25, 27, 30, Sep 1, 4, 7 – Cavalier – Comte Ory – Edinburgh |
| – Sep – Berlin with Glyndebourne?? |
| Oct 4 – Married to Eithne McGrath |
| Nov ? – Almaviva – Barber of Seville – DOS??? |
| 1955 |
| Jan 6 – Irish Festival Singers – US Tour – 50 Concerts – 2 LPS’ cut in advance. |
| Jan 28 – Carnegie Hall |
| Mar 17 – Carnegie Hall |
| Glyndebourne and Edinburgh Festival: |
| – Jun 11, 15, 17, 19, 22, 25 – young Nobleman – Le Comte Ory |
| – Aug 23, 25, 27, 29, Sep 2,7 – Dr Caius – Falstaff – Edinburgh |
| Sept – Joined ROH Covent Garden |
| – Covent Garden appearances for 1955/6 Season – 84 performances including the tour. |
| – Remendado (26); Gaston (7); Nathaniel (11); Priest[Flute] (10); Monostatos (8); Vasek (10); Tchekalinsky (7); Borsa (5) |
| 1956 |
Opera in Ireland 