Jon Weaving

Jon Weaving (23 February 1931 – 19 October 2011) was an Australian opera singer, initially a bass-baritone but later a tenor.

He was born on 23 February 1931 in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. This was the very day on which his great forebear Dame Nellie Melba died. His maternal cousin was the tenor Ken Neate. He studied singing with Jessye Schmidt and Browning Mummery before leaving for further studies in London with Dino Borgioli, Joan Cross, Herman Simberg, Audrey Langford, Andrew Field and Glyndebourne's Jani Strasser. During this time he also worked as a rehearsal singer with Sir Thomas Beecham for two years before his friend Richard Bonynge assisted enormously in developing a tenor voice from his former bass-baritone. After a further two years with Bonynge, Weaving was engaged by the Sadler's Wells Opera and made his debut as Danilo in The Merry Widow opposite June Bronhill at the London Coliseum, the first of many hundreds of performances of the role.

At Sadler's Wells Weaving also sang Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Alfredo in La traviata, and Roméo et Juliette opposite Elsie Morison, as well as other operetta appearances including Pluto in Orpheus in the Underworld, Raoul de Gardefeu in La Vie parisienne and Danilo, all of which were recorded by HMV at Abbey Road studios. In this time he made various recordings with the BBC, the first of which was as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus direct from a stage performance at the Wells. He also sang again with June Bronhill when he appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh in Merrie England. In 1962, Jon began a tour of Australia and New Zealand for Sadler's Wells, which had become the English National Opera Company. During this time he starred in a weekly television series with Suzanne Steele, which ran on the ABC for three years. He sang with the All-State Symphony Orchestra during this period and on his third tour of New Zealand, directed and sang Frederick in The Pirates of Penzance at Her Majesty's Theatre in Auckland.

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