Dan Beddoe (1863-1937) was a beloved concert and oratorio tenor. Born Daniel Theophilus Beddoe in Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, South Wales, the future tenor began his working life as a coal miner. Although most sources state that Beddoe took first prize at the 1882 Welsh National Eisteddfod in Aberdare, contemporary press coverage suggests that he didn’t win the celebrated competition until 1884. By this time, Beddoe was working as a voice teacher and earning a bit of cash as a church soloist and concert singer. His reputation spreading throughout Wales, he was invited to join an ensemble calling itself The Welsh Prize Winners for a U.S. tour. The company set out in the fall of 1887 for a series of concerts in cities both big and small. The young tenor garnered very good reviews and received numerous offers to work as a church soloist. Beddoe, however, had a sweetheart waiting for him back home and returned to marry her when the tour ended. The restless singer wouldn’t remain in his homeland for long.
Shortly after his marriage, Beddoe returned to the U.S. in the fall of 1888. He made his way to Cleveland, where he spent a few years singing and teaching voice. By 1897, Beddoe had settled in Pittsburgh, where he was soloist with the First English Lutheran Church. The salary, however, was not as impressive as the offers he remembered receiving during his first U.S. visit. With a wife and two children to feed, he took a job in a steel mill to pay the bills. Despite earning most of his income as a steel worker, Beddoe soon developed a reputation as a first class tenor. Singing with assorted musical societies and local orchestras, Beddoe became the darling of Pittsburgh music lovers. The local press always referred to him as “the famous Welsh tenor” or “Pittsburgh’s favorite tenor”. Beddoe continued singing regularly throughout the greater Pittsburgh area, all the while toiling in the steel mill. It would remain this way for several years.
In October 1903, famed conductor Walter Damrosch was invited to lead the closing concert of Pittsburgh’s New Exposition. So impressed was he with Beddoe that he invited him to New York for a Berlioz celebration at Carnegie Hall. Of the December 6 concert, the New York Tribune stated, “Mr. Beddoe, a stranger to our concert stage, made a good impression with his fine and manly voice and vocal manner.” A tour of Parsifal followed, with Beddoe taking the title role. He appeared from coast to coast with the Damrosch tour, with public and press hailing the phenomenal new tenor. The 40 year old tenor soon found his career burgeoning. After two decades as a professional singer, Dan Beddoe was an overnight success.
In the spring of 1906, Beddoe accepted a position as soloist with New York’s St. Bartholomew’s Church. For the next decade, the tenor busied himself singing oratorios and concerts for music societies, symphonies and festivals across the country. Interestingly, Beddoe’s concert repertoire included “Cielo e mar”, Wagner’s “Preislied” and “Winterstürme”, and other arias which would seem inappropriate for his lyric voice. However, the tenor never tried to make his voice fit the music…he made the music fit his voice. Beddoe’s activities included, of course, yearly appearances for the citizens of Pittsburgh, whose support he never forgot.
In 1919, Beddoe accepted a voice teaching position at Cincinnati Conservatory. Although he essentially gave up his coast to coast concertizing, the tenor returned to Pittsburgh as often as his schedule allowed. Beddoe also resumed his yearly Messiah appearances with the Oratorio Society of New York in December 1926, making his final appearance with the group in 1933 at the age of 70. In November of 1935, the elderly tenor was hit by a car, which sent him to the hospital with a broken clavicle and scalp contusions. Although he recovered, he announced his retirement from the conservatory in April of 1936. While spending Christmas of 1937 at the New York home of his son, character actor Don Beddoe, the tenor suffered a heart attack and died on December 26. Dan Beddoe was 74.
Dan Beddoe enjoyed a satisfying career during his 50 years before the public. He was a master of oratorio, singing such works as Elijah, The Creation, The Dream of Gerontius, Elgar’s King Olaf, Verdi’s Requiem and Rossini’s Stabat Mater, as well as such secular works as Das Lied von der Erde, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, In a Persian Garden, and the New York premiere of Strauss’ Taillefer. Beddoe also sang the leads in concert versions of such operas as Faust, Samson and Delilah, and Act I of Die Meistersinger. Beddoe’s legacy of about 50 recordings was made for Victor, Edison, Columbia, Rainbow and Brunswick between 1911 and 1928. These discs showcase a full lyric tenor and exemplary artistry. In this recording, Beddoe, still in fine form at age 65, sings Jules Granier’s Easter hymn, “Hosanna”. This was recorded in New York for the Brunswick label in 1928.
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