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.
by Kenneth Green
oil on canvas, 1943
On display in Room 31 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG 5136
by Georg Ehrlich
plaster cast for bronze head, 1963
NPG 5909
Members of the English Opera Group in Glyndebourne for the original production of 'Albert Herring'
possibly by Edward Mandinian
bromide print, 1947
NPG x15216
Benjamin Britten; Ronald Frederick Henry Duncan; Peter Pears
by Kurt Hutton (Kurt Hubschman)
bromide print, 1950
NPG x15221
John Piper; (Edward) Benjamin Britten and others in Venice
by Erich Auerbach
bromide print, 1 September 1954
NPG x15232
by Unknown photographer
postcard print, December 1955
NPG x15233
by Lotte Meitner-Graf
bromide print, circa 1960
NPG x15240
Benjamin Britten with Peter Pears, Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich and Marion Harewood
by E.I. Iavno
bromide print, 1963
NPG x15245
Peter Pears; Imogen Clare Holst; Benjamin Britten
by Axel Poignant
bromide print, 1964
NPG x15250
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by Malcolm Crowthers
bromide fibre print, 2 May 1984
NPG x136989
J.F. Rivers-Moore; Reginald James; Michael Richardson; Peter Pears; Peter Burra
by A.R. & A. Page
bromide print, circa 1927
NPG x15179
Sir Frederick Ashton, Eric John Crozier, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, 1947
NPG x131141
Peter Pears; Benjamin Britten; Kathleen Ferrier
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, 1952
NPG x15229
Francis Poulenc; Peter Pears; Benjamin Britten
by Unknown photographer
bromide print, circa 1956
NPG x15234
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