Niall Hoskin, ‘Ein edler Werk zu tun’: An Appreciation of Norman Bailey (1933–2021)

Shortly after his 88th birthday in March 2021, Norman Bailey wrote that ‘we all wind up mounted in an opera fan’s dusty photograph album’; but the outpouring of affectionate messages collected from colleagues on that occasion gave the lie to such self- deprecation. Fellow singers and opera-lovers of a certain age have certainly remembered him, but how and why should Bailey be considered by a younger generation?