Dennis Noble

The second record I bought, a 78, many years ago featured the English baritone Dennis Noble. His name came to mind this week when an article in The Times mentioned Belshazzar's Feast. It was mentioned because the biblical story seemed to higlight features of the credit crunch - rather a way-out reference I thought.
The Belshazzar's Feast I know better is William Walton's oratorio. I once went to a concert in London in which the oratorio was performed with, if my memory serves me right, William Walton himself conducting the work with the soloist Dennis Noble.
He was a wonderful baritone with a rather hard timbre to his voice.
The record I had purchased all those years ago had on the one side the Prologue to Pagliacci and, on the other, the famous Barber song from "The Barber of Sevile" by Rossini.
What I remember most about the record was that Dennis Noble sang both songs in English. I don't think I have heard either in English since.
When I wrote a monthly article for a journal called "The South Wales Spectator" for which I received the princely sum of £5 per article, I used to rant on about operas being always performed in foreign languages. How was anyone to know what they were singing about for Heaven's sake? I remember, in one article, suggesting sub-titles. Now they have sur-titles. I often wonder if I was the first to come up with the idea; probably not because the readership of "The South Wales Spectator" was very small indeed.
"Belshazzar's Feast" is a wonderful work, one of Walton's best, but it was thought that it would not be popular when it was first performed (at Leeds). Thomas Beecham suggested to Walton that since he was "up North" he should throw in a brass band to make it more thrilling. Might as well make the best of it, he said, because "it wouldn't be performed again."
It's still going strong.