Peter Forbes Robinson was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 bass

Bass (voice type)

A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...

, born in Macclesfield

Macclesfield

Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East, the county palatine of Chester, also known as the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the Macclesfield urban sub-area at the time of the 2001 census was 50,688...

, best known for his performances in works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

, and Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

.

Career

He created the title role in Michael Tippett

Michael Tippett

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...

's King Priam

King Priam

King Priam is an opera by Michael Tippett, to his own libretto. The story is based on Homer's Iliad, except the birth and childhood of Paris, which are taken from the Fabulae of Hyginus.The premiere was on 29 May 1962, at Coventry...

. His recordings include the Philips recording with Sir Colin Davis

Colin Davis

Sir Colin Rex Davis, CH, CBE is an English conductor. His repertoire is broad, but among the composers with whom he is particularly associated are Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett....

 of Britten's Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...

, as Swallow; he may also be heard in a live 1972 recording of Arthur Bliss

Arthur Bliss

‎Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...

' The Olympians, in which he plays Joseph Lavatte. He sang the part of Géronte de Ravoir in Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut

Manon Lescaut is a short novel by French author Abbé Prévost. Published in 1731, it is the seventh and final volume of Mémoires et aventures d'un homme de qualité . It was controversial in its time and was banned in France upon publication...

on UK television in 1983.

Discography

• Handel, G. F. Chandos Anthem No. 9 (recorded before 1967, when Forbes Robinson was no more than 29 years). Elizabeth Vaughan, Alexander Young, Forbes Robinson, Andrew Davis, John Langdon. In Handel, Antífonas de la Coronación. Antífona de Chandos Nº 9. English Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St .Martin in the Fields, Choir of King’s College, Cambridge / Sir David Willcocks. CD. (Música SAcra, 13). Barcelona: Altaya, 1996.
• Verdi, Giuseppe. La Traviata: Melodrama en tres actos de Francesco Maria Piave (20-6-1958). Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London. With Maria Callas, Cesare Valletti, Mario Zanasi, Marie Collier, Lea Roberts, Dermont Troy, Forbes Robinson, Ronald Lewis, David Kelly. Dir. Nicola Rescigno. New Remastering. 2 CDs. (Maria Callas). Barcelona: DiVa/RBA, 2000.
• Britten, Benjamin. Rejoice in the Lamb: Festival cantata, op. 30. The Chior of St. John's College Cambridge. With Roger Parker, Michael Pearce, Robert Tear. Dir.: George Guest. Organ: Brian Runnett Decca Record Co Ltd, London. Recorded 1966. Digitally remastered 1990

Sources

• CLASSICALmanac
• James Anderson, The Complete Dictionary of Opera and Operetta.