Tom Sutcliffe (opera critic)

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Tom Sutcliffe
Born (1943-06-04) 4 June 1943 (age 80)
Norwich, England
Occupation(s)Journalist, critic, author

Tom Sutcliffe (born 4 June 1943) is an English opera critic, author and journalist. He was also until 2015 a lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England, first elected for the Diocese of Southwark in 1990. From 2002 until 2011 he was a member of the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.[1]

Early life

Sutcliffe was born in Norwich, and saw his first opera, at the age of 4, at the

Organist and Master of the Choristers. He was educated with a choral scholarship at Hurstpierpoint College and then at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a tenor choral scholar and studied English literature.[2]

His professional career as a

period instrument recording of the St Matthew Passion
, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Later career

For two years from 1968, Sutcliffe sold advertising space on the magazine Music & Musicians which he edited from 1970 to 1973. In January 1975 he became music, opera and theatre critic for

Vogue, and continued to review music and opera for Vogue until 1987. Between 1973 and 1996, he worked on the staff of The Guardian, where he was first commissioned as a critic in 1972 – covering Rudolf Bing's farewell Gala at the Met, and the new Bayreuth Festival Tannhäuser staged by Götz Friedrich. After 1979, when the Guardian's famous theatre and opera critic Philip Hope-Wallace died, Sutcliffe wrote frequently about opera, eventually becoming the main opera critic on the paper until 1993 and the replacement of Edward Greenfield on his retirement as chief music critic by Andrew Clements. In 1996 Sutcliffe left the Guardian, where he had also been a frequent writer of features and had edited the arts and obituaries pages. He has continued to write obituaries for The Guardian, including most recently the obituary of Wolfgang Wagner, the composer's grandson, and in 2007 of Luciano Pavarotti. Two months after leaving the Guardian he was invited to become opera critic of the Evening Standard, replacing Alexander Waugh in a post that he held until 2002 when Norman Lebrecht joined the paper as arts supremo on the retirement of editor Max Hastings. He also wrote regularly for Opera News, among many other publications.[4]

He contributed to the

dramaturg in collaboration with opera director Keith Warner at the Monnaie in Brussels in 1998 and at the Theater an der Wien in 2003 and 2006.[2] He currently writes for Opera Now and Opernwelt
.

Personal life

Sutcliffe is married to the author, playwright and librettist Meredith Oakes. They have a daughter Chloe Sutcliffe now working in the Research department of the RHS Gardens, Wisley and a son, Walter Sutcliffe, who is an opera and theatre director.[2] and currently Intendant of Oper Halle in Handel's birth-town in Saxony-Anhalt.

Publications

References

  1. ^ "Tom Sutcliffe". The Guardian. London. 25 February 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Biography (on Sutcliffe's website)". Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  3. ^
    Faber and Faber
    . Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  4. ISBN 0-85967-894-6
    .

External links
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