Sir Jeffrey Philip Tate (28 April 19432 June 2017) was an English conductor of classical music. Tate was born with
spina bifida
Spina bifida (SB; ; Latin for 'split spine') is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the vertebral column, spine and the meninges, membranes around the spinal cord during embryonic development, early development in pregnancy. T ...
and had an associated spinal curvature. After studying medicine at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and beginning a medical career in London, he switched to music and worked under
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...
at the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...
, Covent Garden, before making his conducting debut in 1979 at the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
, New York. He held conducting appointments with the
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra spe ...
,
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, among others, and was the first person to be appointed principal conductor of the Royal Opera House. He was knighted for his services to music in 2017.
Early life
Tate was born in
Salisbury
Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
, England, with
spina bifida
Spina bifida (SB; ; Latin for 'split spine') is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the vertebral column, spine and the meninges, membranes around the spinal cord during embryonic development, early development in pregnancy. T ...
, a major birth defect, and also had an associated spinal curvature,
kyphosis
Kyphosis () is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the Spinal column, spine as it occurs in the Thoracic spine, thoracic and sacrum, sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the Cervical spine, cervical and Lumba ...
. His family moved to
Farnham
Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...
, Surrey, when he was young and he attended
Farnham Grammar School between 1954 and 1961, gaining a
State Scholarship to
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
, where he directed theatre productions. He took piano lessons until he was ten, switching to the cello. During his university years and just after he went to major music events "I listened while I was at Cambridge and when I came to London ... to the
Goodall ''
Mastersingers'', to
Giulini and
Klemperer conducting the
Philharmonia
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...
, to
Monteux's last concerts with the
LSO. London was fantastically exciting. It gave me my musical standard".
At Cambridge he was in the Madrigal Society (conducted by
Raymond Leppard) and directed a few plays which led him into opera. He accompanied
John Kentish and later found himself working on parts of ''
Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86D, is the last of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). I ...
'' with
Anne Evans.
Tate initially read medicine at
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...
(1961–64), specializing in eye surgery. He later worked at
St Thomas's Hospital, London, before giving up his clinical career to study music at the
London Opera Centre from 1970 to 1971.
He became a
repetiteur and a coach at the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...
, Covent Garden, under the tutelage of Sir
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...
. He accompanied
Maria Callas
Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophia Kalogeropoulos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised ...
in the concert aria ''
Ah! perfido'' by Beethoven in 1976, one of last recordings Callas made, and reissued in a 2023 complete set.
Career
Tate was a musical assistant to
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music.
Born in Montb ...
for the centenary production of ''
The Ring'' at
Bayreuth
Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...
in 1976, also working with the conductor on ''
Lulu
Lulu may refer to:
Companies
* LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer
* Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer
* Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia
* Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...
'' for the historic 1979 production at the
Paris Opéra
The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...
which restored Act 3.
[ Alain Pâris. ''Dictionnaire des interprètes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siècle.'' ]Éditions Robert Laffont
Éditions Robert Laffont () is a book publishing company in France founded in 1941 by (1916–2010). Its publications are distributed in almost all francophone countries, but mainly in France, Canada and in Belgium.
Imprints belonging to Édit ...
, Paris, 1995 ().
Tate's international conducting début was in ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
'' at the
Gothenburg Opera in 1978. Working as a repetiteur on a ''Ring'' revival in Cologne in 1977,
Ragnar Ulfung, then director of the Gothenburg company, and
Donald McIntyre
Sir Donald Conroy McIntyre (born 22 October 1934 in Auckland) is an operatic bass-baritone from New Zealand.
Operatic career
McIntyre made his formal debut as Zaccaria in ''Nabucco'', at the Welsh National Opera, in 1959. In 1964 he created ...
, proposed that he conduct a production of ''Carmen''; Tate was initially reluctant; "At Covent Garden I'd said firmly that I only wanted to be a repetiteur. If you're a good repetiteur that's extremely satisfying. The privilege of working as I'd done with great conductors as their assistant is the next best thing to conducting". Tate also had worries about his physical ability for conducting a whole opera, but ''Carmen'' was successful and he was invited back to conduct a new production of ''
Die Zauberflöte
''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
''.
[Forbes, Elizabeth. People : 150 - Jeffrey Tate. ''Opera'', June 1987, p631-637.]
Tate conducted the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1980. His range at the Royal Opera House encompassed Mozart (''
La clemenza di Tito
(''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an ''opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà , after Pietro Metastasio. Mozart completed the work in the midst of composing ''Die Zauberfl ...
'' in 1982, ''
Così fan tutte
(''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...
'' in 1989, ''
Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna ...
'' in 1991, ''
Idomeneo
(Italian for ''Idomeneus, King of Crete, or, Ilia and Idamante''; usually referred to simply as ''Idomeneo'', Köchel catalogue, K. 366) is an Italian-language opera seria by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Vares ...
'' in 1989), Strauss (''
Ariadne auf Naxos
(''Ariadne on Naxos''), Op. 60, is a 1912 opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera's unusual combination of elements of low commedia dell'arte with those of high opera seria points up one of the work's ...
'' in 1985, ''
Der Rosenkavalier
(''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from Louvet de Couvrai's novel ''Les amours du cheva ...
'' in 1989, ''
Arabella
''Arabella'', Op. 79, is a lyric comedy, or opera, in three acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration.
Performance history
It was first performed on 1 July 1933 at the D ...
'' in 1990), Wagner (''
Lohengrin
Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...
'' in 1988, ''
Der fliegende Holländer'' in 2011) and French repertoire (''
Manon
''Manon'' () is an ''opéra comique'' in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel '' L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut'' by the Abbé Prévost. It was f ...
'' in 1987, ''
Les Contes d'Hoffmann
''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...
'' in 1991, ''Carmen'' in 1994).
In 1985, he was appointed the first principal conductor of the
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra spe ...
(ECO), with which group he undertook a recording of
all the symphonies by Mozart for EMI in the 1980s,
and held the post until 2000. Other recordings with the ECO included late symphonies of Haydn, and a
Mozart piano concerto cycle with
Mitsuko Uchida.
In 1982 he won the 'Outstanding First Achievement of the Year in Opera' for conducting Mozart's ''La clemenza di Tito'', at the Royal Opera House in June 1981, in the SWET (now Olivier) Awards. In September 1986, Tate became principal conductor of the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...
, Covent Garden, the first person in the company's history to have that title. He held this Covent Garden post until 1991, and subsequently became principal guest conductor at Covent Garden from 1991 to 1994. He was principal conductor of the
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 1995. In 2005, Tate was appointed music director of the
San Carlo Theatre of
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, remaining in the post until 2010. He created the
Rolf Liebermann opera ''La Forêt'', based on
Ostrovsky's ''
The Forest'', in Geneva in April 1987.
[Clark, Andrew. Switzerland - Liebermann premiere. ]Opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
, August 1987, Vol.38 No.8, p939-941. He conducted ''The'' ''Ring'' at the
Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1994,
In October 2007, the
Hamburg Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Tate as its next chief conductor, and he took up the post in 2009. In 2014, the orchestra announced the extension of his contract as chief conductor until 2019, and he held the post until his death in June 2017. Tate was principal guest conductor and artistic adviser of the
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in part as a result of his association with the orchestra from a 1998 production of the ''Ring'', from 2016 until his death.
The Opera magazine obituary noted that his "recordings, notably of ''Lulu'', ''
Hänsel und Gretel'' and ''
Elektra'', demonstrate his emotive power and continual care that the singing should never be drowned by the pit".
Tate was president of UK Spina Bifida charity
ASBAH (now SHINE
pina Bifida, Hydrocephalus, Information, Networking, Equality from 1989. A portrait of Jeffrey Tate is in David Blum's book ''Quintet, Five Journeys toward Musical Fulfillment'' (
Cornell University Press
The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...
, 1999). It originally appeared as an article on 30 April 1990 issue of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
''.
In private life, Tate was partners with Klaus Kuhlemann, a German geomorphologist, whom he met when conducting at Cologne from 1977. Tate has described this situation as being an outsider on two scores:
Tate and Kuhlemann eventually married.
Tate was made a
Knight Bachelor
The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...
in the
2017 New Year Honours for services to British music overseas.
He was also appointed a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(CBE) in the
1990 Birthday Honours.
Tate conducted his last concerts on 30 and 31 May 2017, in Bolzano and Trento, with the Haydn Orchestra. He died of a heart attack in
Bergamo
Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...
, Lombardy, Italy, on 2 June 2017 at the age of 74. Kuhlemann, his spouse, survives him.
Discography
As well as his Mozart cycles, his English Chamber Orchestra discography also includes English music by Bax, Bridge, Butterworth and Moeran, ''
Verklärte Nacht'', ''
Metamorphosen'', and the
Missa Solemnis
is Latin for Solemn Mass.[Mass]
, ''Catholic Encyclopedia''. N.p., Appleton, 1910. 797. and is a genre of < ...
; he conducted the Canteloube
Songs of the Auvergne for
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". On 1 December ...
in 1982 and 1983.
His version of incidental music to ''
Peer Gynt
''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five-Act (drama), act play in verse written in 1867 by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It is one of Ibsen's best known and most widely performed plays.
''Peer Gynt'' chronicles the journey of its title character fr ...
'' by Grieg with the
Berlin Philharmonic
The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.
Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...
and soloist
Sylvia McNair
Sylvia McNair (born June 23, 1956) is an American opera singer and classical recitalist who has also achieved notable success in the Broadway and cabaret genres. McNair, a soprano, has made several critically acclaimed recordings and has won t ...
was described by Diapason magazine in a survey as a "vital, almost breathless", almost ideal recording.
[Fort, Sylvain. Grieg - Peer Gynt, oeuvre du mois, histoire, interpretation, discographie comparee. Diapason, April 2023, no. 721, p. 41.]
As a keyboard player he played organ for recordings of Vivaldi choral works in the 1970s, and was part of the continuo for ''
Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' (, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna ...
'' in 1982, conducted by
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...
on Decca.
Videography
* ''
The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala'' (1983), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, 00440-073-4538
* Recording of a live televised English Chamber Orchestra concert from the
Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna on 16 November 1990; Mozart: Symphony No.36 in C K425 "Linz", Piano Concerto No.17 in G K453 (with
Dezsö Ránki) and Symphony No.41 in C K551 "Jupiter", issued in parts on laserdisc (Philips 070 141.1PHG), VHS (Philips 070 141.3PHG), DVD (ArtHaus Musik 100 081, EuroArts 201021.8, and Brilliant Classics 92819) and Blu-ray (EuroArts 200102.4).
[Stuart, Philip. The English Chamber Orchestra - Discography of the world's most recorded chamber orchestra. 2019.]
References
External links
*
Biography from allmusicbr>
Pieces, 2002 (article in Christ's College newsletter)"Jeffrey Tate: 'You can't terrify people any more; you have to do it with love'". ''The Guardian'' podcast with Christopher Cook, 13 October 2011 28 July 1982 Very early, at the beginning of his conducting career; much about Wagner and Tate's involvement with the Boulez ''Ring'' at Bayreuth.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, Jeffrey
1943 births
2017 deaths
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
English male conductors (music)
Fellows of King's College London
Musicians from Salisbury
People with spina bifida
English gay musicians
Knights Bachelor
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Laurence Olivier Award winners
20th-century English conductors (music)
21st-century English conductors (music)
Conductors (music) awarded knighthoods
20th-century English LGBTQ people
21st-century English LGBTQ people
English people with disabilities
Chief conductors of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra