Derek Hammond Stroud

Derek Hammond Stroud, who has just died at the age of 86, was one of the formative sounds of my student days when learning to love opera. He was a stalwart of the ENO at the time and I heard him in a number of roles. He is one of those performers who has impressed themselves permanently on my memory whether as Faninal, Alberich or Reginald Bunthorne. Superbly funny in Gilbert and Sullivan, he was chilling as Alberich. And what was amazing was the way he could switch between the two in a single week.