David Parker - "From a Child's Garden" (Malcolm Williamson) 1976

The Welsh born tenor, David Parker, studied voice at the Royal Academy of Music in London and made his professional debut in the Chorus of a production of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" at London's Mermaid Theatre - which starred Kirsten Flagstad. Over the next few years he sang regularly throughout Britain in opera and oratorio, and made a successful recital tour of South Africa. He debuted with Opera Australia as Pinkerton in the 1969 production of "Madama Butterfly". At that time the company opened its season each year in Canberra, so his first performance in Australia was in the Canberra Theatre on February 11th 1969. During that season he also sang Grigori in "Boris Godunov" and Gustavo in "Un ballo in maschera". In 1976 has was appointed Head of Voice in Canberra. He and his wife, Australian pianist Marie van Hove, established the ANU Opera Workshop in 1984 mounting small-scale productions of baroque operas. He died in 1996. He is heard here in a radio broadcast in 1976 of Malcolm Williamson's song cycle, "From a Child's Garden" composed in 1968 to words by Robert Louis Stevenson. The pianist is David Parker's wife - Marie Van Hove.