Alan Arthur Styler (1 October 1925 – 1 September 1970) was an English opera singer, best known for his performances in

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the ...

roles of the

Savoy Operas Savoy opera was a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which imp ...

with the

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Th ...

. After service in the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

during the Second World War, Styler joined D'Oyly Carte in 1947, where he spent his entire two-decade career. Some of his key roles were the Counsel in ''

Trial by Jury A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions. Jury trials are used in a significan ...

'', Strephon in ''

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...

'', Pish-Tush in ''

The Mikado ''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the ...

'', Giuseppe in '' The Gondoliers'', Mr. Cox in ''

Cox and Box ''Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers'', is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce '' Box and Cox'' by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic ope ...

'', Grosvenor in '' Patience'' and the Lieutenant of the Tower in '' The Yeomen of the Guard''. He recorded most of these roles with the company. Styler was particularly popular with both audiences and his fellow members of D'Oyly Carte. He married fellow D'Oyly Carte player Vera Ryan.

Early life and career

Styler was born in

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

, Worcestershire, the son of Arthur Styler and Madeleine ''née'' Cook. He had a sister, Iris M. Styler (born 1919), and a brother, John Harold S. Styler (1923–1994). Alan Styler studied singing as a teenager and joined the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

at the age of seventeen. After leaving the service in 1946, he pursued his aspirations to become a professional singer. He joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus in 1947 and soon was assigned his first role, Antonio in '' The Gondoliers''.Stone, David
Alan Styler
Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, 24 August 2007, accessed 24 June 2014 In 1948, Styler was also given the small role of Second Yeoman in '' The Yeomen of the Guard'' and was made an understudy for the "juvenile" Gilbert and Sullivan baritone roles. He began, in 1949, to fill in frequently as the Counsel in ''

'' (otherwise as the Associate), Strephon in ''

'', Pish-Tush in ''

'', and Giuseppe in ''The Gondoliers'' and also to regularly play the roles of Mr. Cox in ''

'', and Grosvenor in '' Patience''. He continued to perform all these roles through October 1952, when he took a three-month leave because of illness. In 1953, Styler yielded the roles of Pish-Tush and Grosvenor, but added the role of the Lieutenant of the Tower, in ''Yeomen''.Rollins and Witts, pp. 171–86

Later years

From 1953 through 1962, Styler regularly played Cox, the Counsel, Strephon, the Lieutenant, and Giuseppe. During several seasons, he also appeared as Pish-Tush and added the roles of Captain Corcoran in ''

H.M.S. Pinafore ''H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which ...

'' and Florian in '' Princess Ida'' in 1957, and Samuel in '' The Pirates of Penzance'' in 1962. In the winter of 1962–1963, Styler fell ill again and left the company for several months. He returned in 1963, playing or sharing his old roles and, for several seasons, the Earl of Mountararat instead of Strephon in ''Iolanthe''. After a lung operation in 1968, his doctor advised him to give up performing. In his spare time, Styler loved fishing and golf. He bore his long final illness with great courage. Styler died in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, England at the age of 44. A charming and infectiously enthusiastic man, with a cheerful word for everyone and a winning sense of humour, Styler was popular with both audiences and his fellow members of D'Oyly Carte. Members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and the touring company

Gilbert and Sullivan for All Gilbert and Sullivan for All was a touring concert and opera company, formed in 1963 by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performers Thomas Round and Donald Adams and former director Norman Meadmore, and which exclusively performed the works of Gilbert ...

joined together to pay tribute to Styler in a memorial service at St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden. He married fellow D'Oyly Carte (and later

) player Veronica Cross (stage name Vera Ryan) in Manchester in 1960. The couple had three daughters.

Recordings

Styler's roles recorded with D'Oyly Carte included Pish-Tush (1950, 1958), Giuseppe (1950, 1961), Strephon (1952, 1960), Grosvenor (1952), Cox (1961), and a role he never played on stage with the company, Doctor Daly in ''

The Sorcerer ''The Sorcerer'' is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It was the British duo's third operatic collaboration. The plot of ''The Sorcerer'' is based on a Christmas story, ''An Elixir of Love ...

'' (1966). Of his first recording as Giuseppe, reviewer Raymond Walker wrote that he "has a voice of ... rounded tone, good diction, never sounds forced and generally captivates interest. Styler's rendering of 'Rising Early in the Morning' is everything it should be."Walker, Raymond
"Arthur Sullivan: ''The Gondoliers''"
MusicWeb International, accessed 24 June 2014

Notes

References

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External links

at Naxos

{{DEFAULTSORT:Styler, Alan People from Redditch 1925 births 1970 deaths 20th-century British male opera singers British Army personnel of World War II Grenadier Guards soldiers Musicians from Worcestershire Military personnel from Worcestershire