John Ayldon

John Ayldon (born December 11, 1943) is an English opera singer, best known for his performances in bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.

John Ayldon was born John Arnold in London. His parents moved the family to San Francisco in 1954, where he went to school and first became interested in the theatre, appearing in many school productions and professional engagements, including appearing on television Huckleberry Finn, before returning to England in 1958.

D’Oyly Carte years

Ayldon joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company as a member of the chorus in 1967. The following season, he began to play the small role of the Associate in Trial by Jury and filled in on occasion as Sergeant Bouncer in Cox and Box, the Learned Judge in Trial, and the Boatswain in H.M.S. Pinafore. In 1968, he began to understudy to Donald Adams in the principal bass-baritone roles, appearing on occasion as Dick Deadeye in Pinafore, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance. When Adams left the Company in 1969, John Ayldon took over as Deadeye, Pirate King, Colonel Calverley in Patience, Mountararat, Arac in Princess Ida, the Mikado, Sir Roderic Murgatroyd in Ruddigore, and Sergeant Meryll in The Yeomen of the Guard. For the 1975 D'Oyly Carte Centenary Celebration, Ayldon played all his principal bass-baritone roles as well as Phantis in Utopia Limited and the Prince of Monte Carlo in The Grand Duke (in concert). He continued to play his regular roles through the remaining days of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, except that in 1977 (at his request) he swapped Florian for Arac in Princess Ida. The Prince of Monte Carlo’s “roulette song” became a favourite concert piece of Ayldon's, and he sang it on the Last Night of the D'Oyly Carte on February 27, 1982.