My friend Adrian Fisher, who has died aged 67 of a heart attack, was an actor and opera singer.
He lived for many years in Antwerp, Belgium, appearing in more than 700 performances with the local Vlaamse Opera House from 1992 to 2004, before touring extensively across Europe in solo roles, including as Stárek in Jenůfa (2007) at the Muziektheater Amsterdam and on a national tour of the Netherlands, and as Charles Guiteau in Assassins (2010) at the Teatergarasjen Bergen in Norway, followed by a tour to Poland and France.
Fascinated by the parallel lives of Noël Coward and Ivor Novello, in 2009 Adrian collaborated with Stuart Barham to write and star in The Two Most Perfect Things at the Jermyn Street theatre in London, at the Edinburgh festival and at the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo.
For a long time he had also picked up work as an English language teacher for international singers, and as the years passed he gradually scaled back on performing to focus more on coaching – his strong affinity for Benjamin Britten’s operas led him to work with international casts for several productions of Peter Grimes for the director David Alden. For a time he ran his own agency, representing singers and liaising with opera houses around Europe.
Adrian was born in Leeds to Janos Fischer, a renowned industrial chemist, and Marieanne Frank, a technician, Jewish refugees who had fled Germany to the UK in 1939, just days before the outbreak of the second world war.
He went to Bradford grammar school and then the University of Kent (1975-78), from where he graduated with a degree in drama and English. He then did another drama degree at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, which included the study of speech production and breathing technique.
Embarking initially on an acting career, he appeared in two musicals in 1981 with the London-based Spectrum theatre company, one of which, Oh, Coward!, went on a national tour. He worked in children’s theatre with several touring companies from 1982 to 1984, before setting up his own company, Smalltime.
Deciding to retrain as an opera singer, in 1987 and 1988 he completed a final degree at the Royal College of Music Opera School, after which he worked successfully for a number of years in the UK and Ireland with various opera companies, including at Glyndebourne, predominantly in the chorus but also as a principal.
He made his West End debut in 1988 at the Donmar theatre in the opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis (The Emperor of Atlantis), written by Viktor Ullmann and Peter Kien while they were in Theresienstadt concentration camp, where coincidentally many of Adrian’s relatives were interned before being murdered in Auschwitz. His international solo debut came with the Wexford Festival Opera in 1989, performing as Friar Tuck in Marschner’s Der Templer und die Jüdin, before his long stint in Antwerp.
Charismatic and dynamic, Adrian was a kind-hearted, generous and funny man who helped many people throughout his life, including aspiring singers and several godchildren.
He is survived by his sister, Rosalind, and his nieces, Katie and Nikki.
