When Leeds city council was considering the desirability of an opera company, its commitment to the cash involved was far from unanimously enthusiastic. David Lloyd-Jones played a crucial role in persuading civic leaders and the wider public.
He was immensely personable and put himself about in meetings and conferences. He also ensured that groups of his singers and musicians went out, for instance, to working men’s clubs to put on extracts from the current productions. There was none of the unapproachable aura of the aloof conductor about David, and he was the ideal first musical director of the company that became Opera North.
Michael Meadowcroft
In 1985 Opera North mounted a production of Michael Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. Though the work, slated at its Covent Garden premiere in 1955, had been performed there subsequently and by Welsh National Opera, its quality was not fully recognised.
However, the new production was broadcast live on Radio 3, its success was described in the press as “a near miracle” and it certainly helped steer Tippett from being a neglected figure towards international acclaim.
Meirion Bowen
• The second letter was amended on 21 August 2022 to remove the assertion that The Midsummer Marriage had not been performed in the UK in the two decades up to 1985.
