Most operatic bass-baritones can convey motiveless malignity. A lot of the time it is what they are there for. Much rarer, on the operatic or any other stage, is an actor who can communicate sheer humanity. Norman Bailey was one who could.
Even as Wotan he gave us the force of the god’s struggle to be good and the sense of his developing into a man. As Klingsor, the magician in Parsifal, he was miscast. But his Kutuzov in War and Peace was a definitive performance – unforgettable.
