He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and sang with two opera companies in the 1970s - the English Opera Group and the Welsh National Opera.
During the 1990s Lord Crickhowell became a leading figure in the campaign for a permanent home for the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff.
National Football League | National Register of Historic Places | opera | Welsh | National Hockey League | England national football team | Metropolitan Opera | National Basketball Association | National Science Foundation | National Geographic | National Trust | National Endowment for the Arts | National Geographic Society | Royal Opera House | Argentina national football team | National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty | National Park Service | National League | Australian National University | National Guard | National Geographic Channel | National Institutes of Health | National Guard of the United States | Welsh language | National Collegiate Athletic Association | United States National Research Council | National Portrait Gallery | National Academy of Sciences | Indian National Congress | United States men's national soccer team |
Described in Opera magazine as the "leading authority on Sullivan's manuscripts", Russell Hulme has been closely involved in productions by leading opera companies including Welsh National Opera (Charles Mackerras's The Yeomen of the Guard), English National Opera (the Ken Russell/Jane Glover Princess Ida).
Tooley has held a large number of other appointments in the musical world, serving as a trustee or board member of the Walton Trust, the Britten Estate, the Southbank Centre and the Welsh National Opera among others.
In 1979 the opera was revived in an English translation by Michael Geliot, by Welsh National Opera, who staged it at the Teatr y Werin in Aberystwyth, the Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest, the Teatr Gwynedd in Bangor, the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, the Astra Theatre in Llandudno, and the Playhouse Theatre in Cheltenham.
Her signature role is perhaps Carmen the Daily Telegraph referring to her as "the Carmen of the Decade" a role which she has sung for the English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Geneva Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Toulouse Capitole, and at the Beijing Music Festival.
Spence's professional debut was in 1995 as Idamante in Welsh National Opera’s production of Idomeneo, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; he repeated the role later the same year in Munich after only one day of rehearsal.
Notable international productions include performances for the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, Puccini's Turandot with NorrlandsOperan, a 2005 European tour of Jerome Kern's and Oscar Hammerstein's Show Boat, and performances of Porgy and Bess with both the Welsh National Opera and NorrlandsOperan in 2006, and Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2008.
In 1951 she sang Leonora in ‘’Il trovatore’’ for Welsh National Opera, and in autumn 1952 Vayne sang her first Tosca, to the Scarpia of Tito Gobbi in the Italian Opera Company's production.