Mostyn Thomas (born Thomas James Thomas) (January 14, 1896 – August 17, 1984) was a Welsh operatic

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 r ...

, prominent in the first half of the 20th century.

Early life

He was born in Blaina,

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, to Thomas and Ann. At the age of 13 he went to work underground in the local colliery.

Voice

His voice was discovered at the

Ammanford Ammanford ( cy, Rhydaman) is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, with a population of 5,411 at the 2011 census. It is a former coal mining town. The built-up area had a population of 7,945 with the wider urban area even bigger. Acco ...

Eisteddfod, and the local community of Blaina collected money for him to be trained at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

Milan. Mostyn has his debut as

Tonio Tonio may refer to: * ''Tonio'' (film), a 2016 Dutch film *Tonio (software), a Vocaloid vocal *Tonio Kröger, a novella by Thomas Mann * ''Tonio Kröger'' (film), a film based on the novella *Tonio (app), an audio-decoding-app * Tonio (name), per ...

Pagliacci ''Pagliacci'' (; literal translation, "Clowns") is an Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, with music and libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The opera tells the tale of Canio, actor and leader of a commedia dell'arte theatrical company, who m ...

( Leoncavallo) in 1929. He sang leading baritone roles all over the world, settled in America and married a wealthy American widow. On February 13, 1923, Mostyn Thomas sang Dafydd y Garreg Wen to inaugurate the first radio broadcast by BBC.

References

BBC Wales Database
November 29, 1937

July 11, 1932
Chronology, The National Theatre, 1835 -Present
(PDF) 1896 births 1984 deaths Welsh operatic baritones 20th-century Welsh male opera singers People from Blaina {{UK-opera-singer-stub