John Tooley
John Tooley | |
---|---|
Born | 1 June 1924 |
Died | 18 March 2020 (aged 95) |
Alma mater | Magdalene College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Musical administrator |
Sir John Tooley (1 June 1924 – 18 March 2020)[1] was an English musical administrator who served as the general director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. He held a range of appointments in the musical world, serving as a trustee or board member for many organisations.
After serving for 15 years as assistant and later deputy to
Life and career
Tooley was born in
In 1955 the Royal Opera House underwent an internal reorganisation. The deputy general administrator, Sir Steuart Wilson, left and Tooley was appointed assistant to the general administrator, David Webster. He was promoted to assistant general administrator in 1960, and served in that post until Webster's retirement in 1970. In the late 1960s, Webster's health became uncertain, and much of the day-to-day business of running the opera house fell to Tooley.[6] He was appointed to succeed Webster, and held the post of general administrator until 1980, when it was renamed general director. He retired from the post in 1988.[2]
The opera commentator Harold Rosenthal wrote of Tooley's important role in coordinating the workings of the major European and American opera houses. He promoted regular meetings of the heads of these houses, with the aim of resisting excessive fees for star singers and also of sharing costs by staging co-productions.[5] To attract a new and younger audience to the Royal Opera House, Tooley set up a series of "promenade" performances of operas, with low-priced admission to the stalls area, from which the seats were temporarily removed.[5]
Tooley held a large number of other appointments in the musical world, serving as a trustee or board member of the Walton Trust, the Britten Estate, the Southbank Centre and the Welsh National Opera among others.[2] He was knighted in the 1979 Birthday Honours.[2]
He married, and divorced, three times: from 1951 to 1965 he was married to Judith Craig (née Morris); from 1968 to 1990 to Patricia Janet Norah (née Bagshawe); and from 1995 to 2003 to Jennifer-Anne (née Shannon).
Tooley died on 18 March 2020, aged 95.[8] His family indicated the funeral would be private.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b Tooley profile, announcements.telegraph.co.uk; accessed 20 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "Tooley, Sir John", Who's Who 2011, A & C Black, 2011; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2010, accessed 27 August 2011 (subscription required)
- ^ Rosenthal, Vol. 4, p. 759
- ^ a b c "The Knight at the Opera", The Times (London), 24 November 1980, p. 16
- ^ a b c Rosenthal, Harold. "Tooley, Sir John", Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, accessed 27 August 2011 (subscription required)
- ^ Haltrecht, p. 286
- ^ Twisk, Russell. "Birthdays – The Register", The Times, 1 June 2004
- ^ "Sir John Tooley, general director of the Royal Opera House during the turbulent 1980s – obituary". The Telegraph. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
References
- Allison, John, "Ninety Not Out", Opera (London), June 2014, Vol. 65, No. 6, pp. 693–698
- Haltrecht, Montague. The Quiet Showman: Sir David Webster and the Royal Opera House. London: Collins, 1975. ISBN 0-00-211163-2
- Rosenthal, Harold, "Tooley, Sir John", ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2
Further reading
- Tooley, John, In House: Covent Garden, 50 Years of Opera and Ballet, London: Faber and Faber, 1999. ISBN 0-571-19415-X
- Zeffirelli, Franco; John Tooley (Interviews by Anna Tims), "How we made: Franco Zeffirelli and John Tooley on Tosca (1964)",. The Guardian (London), 23 July 2012 on theguardian.com. Retrieved 11 August 2014