and his Orchestra with Thorpe Bates
Thorpe Bates , who created the part of Beppo in The Maid of the Mountains, owes his singing career to a stipend of £ 10 a year which he received from a church appointment at the age of sixteen and set aside to pay his fees at the Guild-hall School of Music. At the age of twenty-three an agent heard him, persuaded him to give up business for a singing career and to study a bit more at the Royal Academy of Music. As a reward he gave young Thorpe Bates a three years' contract. It was at a concert at Manchester that he won the notice of Ernest Newman , then music critic of the Manchester Guardian, and was set on the road to fame.
Thorpe Bates is now working for
ENSA, and is chairman of the concert section.