Peter Pears (1910-1986), Singer

Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears

Sitter in 27 portraits
Pears met Benjamin Britten in 1934, when he was a member of the BBC Singers. They gave their first recital together in 1937 at Balliol College, Oxford. Britten wrote for Pears a variety of leading roles in almost all his principal operas, from Peter Grimes (1945) to Death in Venice (1973). Pears made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in October 1974 as Aschenbach in Death in Venice. He sang regularly at the Royal Opera House and other opera houses in Europe and the United States. He was also a celebrated interpreter of Franz Schubert's Lieder, usually with Britten as accompanist and he gave performances as the Evangelist in Johann Sebastian Bach's Passions.