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John Fullard

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David John Fullard (25 October 1907[1] – 25 September 1973)[2] was a Welsh tenor singer with the Covent Garden Opera company, who appeared in BBC concerts and on several recordings. He had a considerable career playing Gilbert and Sullivan roles (of which he had no previous experience) in Australia between 1940 and 1955.

History

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Fullard was born in Brecon, Wales. According to one report, he was born a tenor; his voice never broke, and he was rejected from the cathedral choir, who only wanted boy sopranos.[3]

In grand opera he played David in Die Meistersinger, Adolfo in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Luigi in Il tabarro, Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff, and the title role in Gounod's Faust. He sang Handel's Judas Maccabaeus with Sir Henry Wood's BBC Symphony Orchestra. He created Sir Lavaine in Rutland Boughton's The Lily Maid and the Squire in George Lloyd's second opera, The Serf. He might have sung the title role in Handel's Samson for Sir Henry Wood but for the advent of World War II.[4]

He sang in The Canterbury Pilgrims after being selected for the role by the composer, George Dyson.[5]

In April 1939 at Dartington Hall, Devon, Fullard married soprano Anne (or Helen) Coleman, who had been a fellow-student at the Royal Academy of Music. With the outbreak of war, she found secretarial work at the Department of Agriculture, while he was employed as an ambulance driver.[6] Late that year Fullard was contracted by J. C. Williamson's as leading man for their 1940 Gilbert and Sullivan season in Australia, along with Ivan Menzies and Gregory Stroud,[7] both of whom had played in that country several times before. It would also be Fullard's first appearance in G.& S.[8]

Australia

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The Gondoliers opened at the Theatre Royal, Sydney on 16 March 1940, and was well received, Fullard being called back for two encores of "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes",[9] a song he learned to sing in the blackouts.[10] The Yeomen of the Guard followed, then Iolanthe, The Mikado, Patience and Princess Ida. A similar program then followed at His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne.[11] In each review he was praised for his voice, described as pure and light, ideal for G.& S.[12] The season was followed in February and March 1942 with Lilac Time, with Fullard playing Schubert alongside Viola Wilson as Lilli Veit.

In 1940 the Fullards were near neighbours to Evelyn Gardiner and her husband, and fellow members of the Garden Club.[13] On 7 September 1942 he enlisted with the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve and appointed sub-lieutenant. He was promoted lieutenant in January 1943. In 1942 their residence was Crick Avenue, Darlinghurst; in 1948 "Macleay Regis" (apartments), Potts Point.[1] He appeared, Navy duties permitting, on the Macquarie Radio Network for Colgate Palmolive from September 1942 to January 1949[14] in the weekly programmes "Calling the Stars" and the "Cashmere Bouquet Show". He reprised his role in The Canterbury Pilgrims on ABC radio in June 1946.[5]

Fullard and his wife Helen[a] Dorothy Margaret Fullard, née Coleman (born c. 1917), divorced in February 1948[16] after she left him for mutual friend[17] Emil Landau in Hong Kong.[18] He then made a "farewell tour" series of concerts, which included the Crystal Theatre, Broken Hill,[19]

He returned to Britain in 1949 but was soon back in Australia, arriving in Fremantle aboard the Coptic in August 1950 and by plane to Sydney; he married Mrs Barbara Levy, née Smart, of Potts Point on 19 September, and rejoined J.C.W.'s Gilbert and Sullivan Company in October.[20]

Fullard was active in promoting opera and performance of the classical repertoire. In 1945 he gave a concert in Maryborough, Queensland in support of that town's Philharmonic Society, which had experienced a downturn in numbers.[21] In later years, though still an active performer, he served as adjudicator at the Sun Aria Contest[22] and the Sydney Eisteddfod.[23]

Sometime around 1955 he returned to England, where he died some twenty years later.

See also

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Other tenors who played G.& S. and Schubert in Lilac Time for JCW:

Notes and references

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  1. ^ In most reports she was named Helen,[15] but Navy records had her name, in his handwriting, as Anne Dorothy Margaret.[1]
  1. ^ a b c "Fullard, David John". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  2. ^ "John Fullard". Discogs. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  3. ^ "The Gilbert and Sullivan Company". The Sun (Sydney). No. 1934. New South Wales, Australia. 21 April 1940. p. 22. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "Tenor for G. and S." The Age. No. 26, 438. Victoria, Australia. 10 January 1940. p. 13. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia. This article is accompanied by a portrait photograph.
  5. ^ a b "Radio Review". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 21, 561. Victoria, Australia. 27 June 1946. p. 5. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "War Conditions Brought Tenor To Australia". Truth (Sydney newspaper). No. 2619. New South Wales, Australia. 17 March 1940. p. 41. Retrieved 15 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "S.A. Artists Chosen for G.& S. Tour". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 28, no. 1, 440. South Australia. 30 December 1939. p. 2. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "War's Effect on Theatre". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 31, 889. New South Wales, Australia. 14 March 1940. p. 4. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Frequent Encores At Opera Opening". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Vol. IV, no. 310. New South Wales, Australia. 18 March 1940. p. 8. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Across the Stage". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Vol. I, no. 20. New South Wales, Australia. 31 March 1940. p. 16. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Gilbert and Sullivan as Bright as Ever". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 19, 702. Victoria, Australia. 6 July 1940. p. 23. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ ""The Gondoliers" At The Royal". Daily News (Sydney). Vol. 2, no. 405. New South Wales, Australia. 18 March 1940. p. 4. Retrieved 12 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "The Jottings of a Lady about Town". Truth (Sydney newspaper). No. 2619. New South Wales, Australia. 17 March 1940. p. 39. Retrieved 15 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "Neil Murray's Radio Roundup". The Sun (Sydney). No. 12, 161. New South Wales, Australia. 18 January 1949. p. 10. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "Fullard's Love Song Ends". The Mirror (Perth). Vol. 26, no. 1346. Western Australia. 6 March 1948. p. 13. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Granted Divorce". The Courier-mail. No. 3512. Queensland, Australia. 26 February 1948. p. 4. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Fullard's Love Song ends". The Mirror. Vol. 26, no. 1346. Western Australia. 6 March 1948. p. 13. Retrieved 15 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Operatic Singer Granted Divorce from Wife". The Canberra Times. Vol. 22, no. 6, 515. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 26 February 1948. p. 2. Retrieved 15 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "Concert Here by John Fullard". Barrier Daily Truth. Vol. XL, no. 12, 583. New South Wales, Australia. 18 June 1948. p. 3. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ^ "Surprise Wedding". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 35, 180. New South Wales, Australia. 21 September 1950. p. 12. Retrieved 10 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ^ "Well-known Singer Here for Concert". Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser. No. 22, 953. Queensland, Australia. 5 October 1945. p. 2. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ^ "Victoria's sopranos". The Sun (Sydney). No. 13, 923. New South Wales, Australia. 27 September 1954. p. 9. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ^ "Sydney Eisteddfod". The St George Call. Vol. 52, no. 14. New South Wales, Australia. 5 April 1956. p. 8. Retrieved 9 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
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