I first met Ed in the DGOS rehearsal rooms in Sth Leinster St, Dublin early in 1961. He had a wonderful vibrant Italianate voice with a free and easy top extension,
so unlike any Irish Tenor I had ever come across. I was a rookie first tenor in the chorus learning my part as a student in Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”, and Ed was our
student leader, Edmondo. Our chorus master, Riccardo Bottino, was Italian, blind as a bat, wore bottle-tops for glasses, could hardly play the piano, had a hearing
problem in one ear, had absolutely no English … but was a wonderful teacher and a fantastic chorus master … go figure……
It was only much later that I discovered Ed was instructed to sit and learn with us because the Italian Impresario , Paolo Silveri, needed the reassurances of Maestro Bottino that Ed was up to the role, seeing as it was to be his debut … and Edmondo starts the show … Anyway I’m getting ahead of myself … let’s wind the clock back …
Initially trained as a baritone in 1953-55 in the RIAM with Maestro Adelio Viani, Ed made few public appearances save for the Academy production of Catalani’s “La Wally” when he was the villain Gellner. [The cast was led by Winnie O’Dea as the heroine Wally and Celine Murphy as the boy Walter.]
It was after this production that Viani decided that he was really a tenor in disguise…..This entailed further study and on Viani’s retirement Ed worked for a time with Ronnie Dunne.
His first RE broadcast was in 1957 of English Songs – accompanied by pianist Rhoda Coghill. This was followed by programmes with the RELO of standard Italian repertoire, duets with Winnie O’Dea as well as concerts around the country and many weddings.
Frederick Cox principal of the Manchester College of Music offered him a scholarship covering tuition and expenses of travel and stay in Manchester…. and so began Ed’s commute on a Friday evening for lessons Saturday and Sunday [up to 6 sessions] returning home Sunday evening. The College recouped part of their outlay through engagements as diverse as “Messiah” in Blackpool or variety shows on the pier in Colwyn Bay. In this period for the College he sang Cavaradossi in “Tosca”, and the title roles in “Andrea Chenier” and “Otello”… more of the latter anon.
Meantime he had successfully auditioned for the DGOS. Bill O’Kelly and Paolo Silveri were sufficiently impressed to offer him roles in the forthcoming 1961 Italian Opera Season. He made his debut as Edmondo in “Manon Lescaut” on 4 April 1961 and received good critical notices. That season also sang in “Norma” and “Rigoletto”. For the next 4 years he was a constant presence in all the tenor comprimario roles. In Massenet’s “Manon”, he showed remarkable acting skills as the elderly roue Guillot and a delightful cameo as the stuttering lawyer, Dr Blind, in “Die Fledermaus”. His final role for the DGOS was as the Italian singer in Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier” in winter 1964. This was an era of Golden Italian Voices gracing the Gaiety Theatre: Di Stefano, Guelfi, Pavarotti, Rinaldi, Clabassi, Benelli … and Ed in sharing the stage with them grew as an artist and performer.
An unexpected bonus for Ed during the Italian Opera Seasons were a number of Sunday night Charity concerts around the city, where he got the opportunity to sing with his Italian colleagues many of the big tenor arias and duets . You couldn’t buy this kind of experience or indeed exposure and he grabbed it with both hands. Even the Italians were impressed……
The early 1960’s saw the flourishing of Musical Societies around the country and Ed was in demand….tenors were/are always scarce !!! Good ones like him…. rarer still.!!! He debuted with O’Connells Musical Society in Dublin as Camille in Lehar’s “Merry Widow”…a role he repeated many times. I have vivid memories of his dashing, rakish Gaylord Ravenal in “Showboat” opposite Mary Sheridan as Magnolia in 1963 in Athlone. Their on stage chemistry was magic…and the singing wasn’t half bad either!
Following the DGOS “Tannhauser” in 1962, in which Ed was the minstrel, Walter von der Wogelweide, Tibor Paul who had conducted it and was RE Head of Music used him as his principal tenor for the next 5 years. Requiems by Verdi, Mozart and Berlioz, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Te Deum by Kodaly, Das Lied von der Erde [Mahler], Beethoven 9th Symphony.
Tibor Paul also cast him as Patrick in the TV opera commissioned for the station opening of RTE in 1961 but abandoned on the illness and subsequent early death of Dermot Troy for whom the title role was written. Composed by Archie Potter to a libretto by Donogh MacDonagh the story parallels the St Patrick legend with a different ending and a modern twist – Patrick working in a foundry in Ireland heard voices calling him to come and help. It was filmed with the singers in Montrose while the orchestra was in the SFX Hall and conducted live on monitors…quite a technical feat for 1962. Thankfully a good DVD copy exists….
The Everest of tenor roles, Verdi’s “Otello”, was conquered by Ed in November 1964 when he sang 3 consecutive performances Wed 25, Thu 26, Fri 27 November in the Arthur Worthington Theatre of Manchester’s Music College. A good cast and a fine conductor, Michael Brierley, well known to Dublin Operatic Society patrons. The distinguished music critic Michael Kennedy writing in the Feb. 1965 issue of Opera Magazine [page 144]:
‘Edwin Fitzgibbon was a most impressive Otello, vocally and physically. An Irish civil servant, he was until recently a part-time student at the college, having taken his vocal powers seriously only in the past 4 years. His command of the part was thorough, and his voice, besides having the bull-like strength for the part, also has a lyrical quality which banishes coarseness. His ‘Dio, mi potevi’ and at the other extreme his taunting of Desdemona were moving and exhilirating’.
Ed was impressed that I took the trouble to come over for the final performance ….what I never told him though was…that as a lifelong fan of Manchester City I was going to Maine Road anyway to see them play at home. Had my match ticket booked and boat fare paid before discovering the “Otello” was on!!
Meantime the first week of the DGOS Winter Season had opened with the Wiesbaden Opera performing “Flying Dutchman” and “Il Seraglio”. Ed and I were both due in the Gaiety on Sunday 29th Nov for a full day’s rehearsal of “Der Rosenkavalier” and “The Gypsy Baron”…..I was tired…he must have been absolutely knackered!!! The theatre was in chaos…Wiesbaden getting all their stuff out and DGOS getting theirs in. Pure mayhem……..
Fortunately no performance was scheduled for Monday 30th Nov!! ..just more rehearsals… “Rosenkavalier” opened next evening, looking as if it had been rehearsed for days……and to universal critical acclaim!! …Ed sang his aria ‘Di rigori armato’ like a God..Live theatre…don’t you just love it.!
Other operatic roles undertaken by Ed around this time were Manrico and Faust in Tuam and an excellent Faust which I also attended in the Savoy Theatre Limerick in November 1966 [with Canadian Soprano Mary Ryan, Polish born Stanislav Pieczora and Limerick’s own Michael McCann, conducted by John Brennock and produced by Anne Makower].
Irish National Opera had been founded late 1964 by Tony O’Dalaigh, Gerry Duffy and Ed, bringing opera, with piano and in abridged versions to provincial audiences. They started with “Marriage of Figaro” in Athlone 17 January 1965. [In the cast were Celine Murphy, Mary Sheridan, Gerry Dempsey, Mabel McGrath and Martin Dempsey who also directed] with Ed as Basilio. The following year Puccini’s “La Boheme” saw and heard Ed as Rodolfo. For over 20 years INO toured 16 productions with 30/50 performances p.a. to some 30 counties [Armagh/Fermanagh missed out] covering 50+ venues and 500+ performances…until they were shafted by the cretins, morons and mandarins in Merrion Square – aka. The Arts Council…enough said….
On Friday 31 March 1967 INO in conjunction with RTE presented a concert version of “Fidelio” in the SFX. Tibor Paul again conducted… [Dolores Burke (Leonora), Mary Sheridan (Marcellina), Paddy Ring (Jacquino), Bill Young (Pizarro), Martin Dempsey (Rocco), Gerry Duffy (Don Fernando) and] Ed was a simply superb Florestan [with the RTE Choral Society and St Peter’s Male Voice Choir from Drogheda]. It was a cracking evening…Yes…I was there…. thankfully a good recording exists…
Four months later on Friday July 28th, Tibor Paul’s final concert in Ireland was the Beethoven 9th in the SFX, when the crowds wishing to attend would nearly have filled Croke Park. [Soloists were Irene Sandford, Bernadette Greevy, Harold Gray, OLCS, RESO and Ed was of course the tenor] It was a mighty scrum that evening in Upr. Sherrard Street … I know … I was there … again … I only lived up the road in Phibsboro!! Being a member of the Pioneer Club meant I was well in with the Jesuits – who owned the hall….and so got in through the back door. It was a very emotional evening, lots of tears…speeches from Mrs Aiken?? to which Tibor responded graciously.
What nobody knew then was that it was also to be Ed’s last performance as a professional tenor… as he had decided double-jobbing was no longer an option. And so, our Ed just walked away …… and the musical life of Dublin and Ireland was all the poorer for it.
I never got to ask him how he coped with the sudden break from performing while he was approaching the peak of his vocal prowess. For a tenor such as Ed, peak years are from his mid 30’s to late 40’s. He was now in his late 30’s. I’m told he just got on with his life…he had a family to care for and a career to manage … Yeh … but … I’m not so sure … It’s never that simple … Applause is oxygen for a performer. Bottom line though is to continue and develop his singing career and earn a living from it was not feasible in Ireland then, as indeed is still the case now, 46 years later…..
In fact, he did fulfill a small number of later engagements, including a series of operatic concerts in Cork – when John Carolan fell ill, a recital of French song for RTE (a recording exists) and a week as Alfredo for the Glasnevin MS in “Die Fledermaus” – all in 1968.
Then … silence … Never forget though that walking away, as Ed did took enormous strength of character, coupled with a steely resolve to follow it through … the pressures, conflicts within him had to be enormous … more than any of us who have not performed at his level could ever imagine.
Meantime he wasn’t exactly idle … being Chef du Cabinet in Brussels to our first two Commissioners, Patrick Hillery and Richard Burke, following which he had a successful career as a consultant.
He and I next met up in the NCH some 10/12 years ago … we exchanged phone/e-mail numbers and got chatting about singers/operas etc … he was always keen to know who was ‘hot ‘ – mainly tenors!
He involved himself in local musical activities…was a big supporter of Ronnie Dunne and her biennial vocal competition, with Margaret Quigley, Feis Ceoil, many NCH activities … always working away quietly in the background … so many unseen and unacknowledged kindnesses and support to the performing arts … a real Renaissance man.
Miriam and Ed joined our small Opera Circle Group, who met 5/6 times a year in the Arts Club for a chat and an audio/visual presentation on singers and operas. In 2006 Sept 24 we finally persuaded him to participate in a ‘This is your musical life evening’ and prepared a programme of his all-too-few recordings. Tony O’Dalaigh sent me an e-mail the following day:
‘Thanks for last night. I was very close to Ed all those years ago and heard quite a few of his performances but some of the extracts last night stunned me. A great night of nostalgia.’
And so the wheel has turned full circle…. we say farewell to a true Irish bard who will live long in our memories, and whose voice continues to ring out in those few precious recordings which we have, and that attest to his unique art. [Also let us not forget what I call that missing generation of Irish singers typified by Ed and which includes Mary Sheridan, Dolores Burke, Celine Murphy, Winnie O’Dea and so many others, of whom, so little, if any, recordings exist in any format to remind us and future generations of their splendid contribution to our musical life and culture].
Let’s leave the last word to Verdi’s “Otello”, that Ed so vividly brought to life in Manchester 49 years ago…for indeed it is Otello’s first word, having braved the storm and brought his ship safely into harbour – “Esultate!” he sings….. Rejoice……Indeed let us all rejoice ……and for a life well-lived.
EDWIN FITZGIBBON – Memorial Celebration Unitarian Church 19 October 2013 – written by Paddy Brennan
A few years before his death, some of the rarer of Ed’s recordings were collected into an “unofficial” 4CD set:
Opera in Ireland 