Peter Hemmings 1934–2002

Opera lovers in the UK and USA will mourn the passing of the impresario and administrator Peter Hemmings, who built two world-class opera companies from scratch. The first, Scottish Opera, was the brainchild of its founding conductor, the late Sir Alexander Gibson, and soon developed into the indispensable cultural resource that it is today. The catalyst for the second, Los Angeles Opera, was a visit to the West Coast by the Royal Opera during the 1984 Olympic Games.

Hemmings’s administrative skills had been acquired the hard way, firstly with the New Opera Company, and later with Australian Opera and the London Symphony Orchestra, where he was general manager. No less challenging were the early days with Scottish Opera: much of his time was spent in securing for the company a permanent home at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. In star-struck Los Angeles a different strategy was required, and he accordingly engaged Placido Domingo as the company’s artistic advisor

Naturally, both companies had their financial ups and downs. Yet Hemmings did not shirk from programming the unfamiliar: Dallapiccola’s Volo di notte received its British premiere, in Glasgow, as early as 1963; Prokofiev’s Fiery angel had its UK premiere in 1965, its American premiere in 1987; and both companies commissioned works by native composers, while also bringing to their audiences the classics of the repertoire.

Peter William Hemmings was born in Enfield, Middlesex, in 1934. Whilst he was a choral exhibitioner at Cambridge, he sang with the university opera group under Leon Lovett, most notably as the Madhouse Keeper in The rake’s progress. The group, of which he was president, was renamed the New Opera Company and, after a highly successful season at Sadler’s Wells in July 1957, became established as an independent opera company in its own right with Hemmings at the helm. Meanwhile, he also enjoyed a sporadic career as a singer, appearing with the Camden Festival and Chelsea Opera Group.

Whilst running the New Opera Company, he broadened his range of experience, most productively at Sadler’s Wells Opera as personal assistant to its general manager, Stephen Arlen, and later as its repertory and planning manager.

Meanwhile, in 1962, Scottish Opera was born. During the first season it put on Madama Butterfly and Pelléas and Mélisande. Three years later he left Sadler’s Wells and the New Opera for good to work for Scottish Opera full-time. Highpoints of his tenure there included memorable productions of Tristan and Pelléas at Sadlers Wells, and Scotland’s first Ring cycle in 1966.

In 1977 Hemmings left Scottish Opera to run Australian Opera in its new Sydney Opera House, but difficulties with the music director, Richard Bonynge, soon prompted his return to Britain, as general manager of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1984 he joined the Los Angeles Music Centre Opera.

The first production in LA was Otello, with Domingo in the title role. Despite teething troubles, it was a success, and Hemmings was able to bring in producers such as Jonathan Miller and designers such as David Hockney.

Although the mid-1990s brought Hemmings his fair share of disappointments in LA, including a scrapped Meistersinger and Death of Klinghoffer, his fourteen years there proved immensely fruitful and much appreciated, at home and abroad.

Hemmings retired in 2000, and returned to England, where he joined the board of the Royal Opera, involved himself in the longstanding plans to bring opera to Compton Verney and in fundraising for the music faculty at Cambridge University. He was also on the board of the Royal Academy of Music. He was appointed OBE in 1998.

Peter Hemmings: born 10 April 1934; died 4 January 2002.