Barry Clark (tenor)

Barry Clark (born 1950) is a retired English opera singer and actor. Beginning in the 1970s, Clark played tenor roles in the Savoy Operas for over a decade with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He then sang in various opera companies, including New Sadler's Wells and Scottish Opera, and played in musicals on the West End. Later, Clark concentrated on oratorio and, in later years, appeared with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, among others.

Early life and career

Born in Southampton, where he attended Regent's Park Secondary School, Clark made his first stage appearances as an amateur with the Southampton Operatic Society in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He worked for the Ordnance Survey in Southampton, where he felt bored, before commencing his professional singing career with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the age of 20, with whom he appeared from 1971 to 1982. There, he began in the chorus and then played small roles and understudied the principal Gilbert and Sullivan tenor roles. His first roles were the First Yeoman in The Yeomen of the Guard, which he played from 1974 until the company closed in 1982. In 1975, he began to play Francesco in The Gondoliers and the leading role of the Defendant in Trial by Jury. As understudy, he occasionally played the principal tenor roles of Alexis in The Sorcerer, Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, the Duke of Dunstable in Patience, Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe, Cyril in Princess Ida, Richard Dauntless in Ruddigore, Leonard Meryll and Colonel Fairfax in Yeomen, and Marco in The Gondoliers.