manx celtic music and dance

Philip Gelling

The Manx Baritone

by

Maurice Powell

Opera singer, pianist and organist.

Born: 11th May 1944, Douglas; died: 30th November 2009, London, NW3.

Father: John (Jack) Richard Gelling, born 1918; died August 1999.

Mother: Phyllis Ena, née Clague, born 27th March 1919; died January 2001.

Married: Yvonne Jacqueline Grenville; Josepha (Jo) Pointner.

John Philip Gelling - henceforth referred to as ‘Philip’ - was one of only two Manx-born singers who became professional opera singers, as opposed to concert artistes.* He was born at the Jane Crookall Maternity Home in Douglas but spent the first three years of his life in Port St. Mary where his father, a well-respected police constable, was stationed. Jack Gelling was also a tenor and baritone who enjoyed success at the Manx Music Festival. Philip’s mother Ena came from a well-known musical family and was one of the finest singers the Island ever produced, ‘whose glorious mezzo-soprano voice (was) placed unstintingly at the disposal of good causes’. She was a three times Cleveland medallist at the Manx Music Festival.**

* The other was Margaret Curphey (1938-2024), renowned for her Wagnerian roles. See Maurice Powell, Margaret Curphey, Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, manxmusic.com, and New Manx Worthies ed. Sue Woolley.

** Inaugurated in 1922 and first awarded to Allan Quirk, bass, in 1923. Ena Gelling won the Cleveland Medal in 1951, 1958 - when she enjoyed a triple success in performances where she sang ‘from the heart to the heart’ in performances that were ‘most musical and artistic’ - including the F. M. Cubbon Lieder Rose Bowl and the Billown Rose Bowl in the vocal duet class - and in 1972. On ‘the Isle of mezzos’, as one adjudicator described the Island, her star shone brighter than most.

Jack Gelling was transferred to Ramsey in 1947 until his retirement from the police service and Philip attended Albert Road Junior School and Ramsey Grammar School. Although already passionately devoted to music he was not happy at school because he struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, although this affliction would yield an unexpected dividend later in life. He left school at the age of fifteen and worked in furniture stores in Ramsey and later Douglas. Philip’s first singing lessons were from his mother, but his principal vocal teacher was Douglas Buxton, one of the most highly respected voice and choir trainers on the Island.

The young performer takes a bow

The earliest reference to Philip in the local newspapers is found in the Ramsey Courier of 3rd August 1951 when, aged seven, he sang Maytime at a Waterloo Road Methodist Church service supported by ‘the lovely singing’ of the Sunday School Children’s Choir directed and trained by Ena Gelling.* The following year he appeared at the Ramsey June Effort Committee’s 3rd Annual Carnival as a crown bearer for the Carnival Queen attired in blue velvet trousers and white satin shirt, and for the next three years either performed a vocal solo at the Waterloo Road Methodist Church or took a role in a play or musical production including the Northern Arts Pantomime Babes in the Wood at the Ramsey Pavilion and the Parent and Teachers’ Association’s production of Robin Hood at Albert Road Junior School. When the Waterloo Road Methodist Church welcomed its new minister with a concert in 1955 Philip performed Angels ever bright and fair from Handel’s Theodora at a sacred recital Sulby Methodist Church.

*  Probably Frederick Jackson’s Children’s Hymn Sing a Song of Maytime. Other pieces in his repertoire at this time included Baby Jesus is Asleep - probably Alice M. Pullen’s The Baby Jesus is Asleep - and William J. Griffiths hymn Jesus, Friend of Little Children.

The Guild Years

Philip’s first appearance at the Manx Music Festival - henceforth referred to as the Guild - came in 1956 when he was placed joint 4th with 85 marks in the vocal solo for boys’ class with How beautiful are the feet from Handel’s Messiah, and 1st with Honours in the elocution test with 91 marks* having delighted the audience with Thackeray’s humorous poem The Pigtail, ‘a tragic story’. Philip’s brother Alan recalls that Philip missed his moment of fame at the subsequent children’s concert at the Gaiety Theatre as he was summoned by the call of nature just before he was called to repeat the poem and receive his prize. A lesson learned, for he never again missed an important cue. In 1957 he was placed 2nd in the boys’ solo class with 86 marks with O Sing unto the Lord when the adjudicator praised his ‘very confident, bigger voice with a true pitching of notes (and) an expressive quality about the singing.’  He was also placed 3rd with 71 marks in the Junior Elocution Class for his recitation The Wind is a Frolic by William Howitt.** In 1958 he was placed 2nd in the Elocution class and in 1960 he achieved 69 marks in the Junior Elocution Class.

* Isle of Man Times 11.05.1956.

** See Isle of Man Times 10.05.1957 for a photograph of Philip at the music festival.

Away from the Guild Philip appeared many times in local concerts including a Sunday concert’ in sunny weather’ in Mooragh Park in June 1957; a Harvest Festival at Park View Methodist Chapel and the annual Thanksgiving Service in Rosemount Methodist Church in November that year which included songs and duets from Mr and Mrs J. Gelling and ‘delightful’ recitations from Philip. He appeared again with his mother ‘in an excellent programme’ at a Bradda Glen Sunday Concert in the café ballroom and at Waterloo Road Methodist Church with a recitation of John Masefield’s Sea Fever. There were several further occasions when Philip recited poetry in Laxey, Crosby and Lezayre, and other concerts when he accompanied his mother on the piano. In 1960 he became the organiser of winter events at Waterloo Road Methodist Church and in February 1961 took part in a debate entitled: ‘Television – friend or foe?’ during which he warned of the ‘bad effect’ on health of sitting in a room continually watching Television. Perhaps the strangest event he took part in was an Evening of Mystery and Mirth at Albert Road Methodist Hall when, together with his mother and father, put on a variety show the highlights of which was an Emergency Ward 10 sketch* and a Potted Panto. Was there a conflict of interests here? Was Philip a budding singer or a promising actor?

* Emergency Ward 10 was the titles of television’s first hospital drama series (ten seasons, 1016 episodes, which ran from 1957-67) shown on ITV.

Philip’s ultimate triumph at the Guild came in 1966 when, having won the Bass Class and the Special Bass Class, he was eligible to enter the Cleveland medal competition which he won.

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama

The adjudicator at the Guild, Arthur Reckless, himself a distinguished baritone who broadcast on the BBC frequently between the 1930s and 1960s was so impressed with Philip’s voice and performance that he encouraged him to apply for entrance to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1967.*

* The octogenarian Arthur Reckless became the teacher of the eighteen-year-old Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel at the Guildhall in the 1980s.He sometimes signed himself ‘A. Reckless, baritone’.

During his time at the Guildhall, Philip starred in two pantomimes with Cyril Fletcher - the master of the ‘Odd Ode’ - and impressionist Peter Goodwright and revealed a natural flare for music hall style crosstalk and comic improvisation. In October 1970 Philip was a guest vocalist in an edition pf BBC Radio’s Seeing is Believing, Cyril Fletcher’s personal choice of words and music, broadcast from All Hallows-on-the-Wall in the City of London.

In 1972 he was awarded a scholarship to the London Opera Centre, situated in a former cinema in London’s East End but managed by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. That year he gave his debut recital at London’s Purcell Room, the intimate wood-panelled recital hall attached to London’s Southbank Centre, with ‘a pleasing recital’ of English songs by Purcell, Arne, Boyce, Vaughan Williams and Armstrong Gibbs. During this period, he also enjoyed the benefit of coaching from the great Italian baritone Tito Gobbi.

Germany

It was in 1972 that he was engaged to sing the major role of Friedrich in Wagner’s rarely performed second opera Das Liebesverbot* at Bayreuth during the Internationales Jugendfestspieltreffen which was recorded ‘live’ and issued on three LP records.

* The Ban on Love (1836) derived from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.

He was subsequently engaged by Krefeld Mönchengladbach Opera between 1973-5; by Osnabrück Opera between 1975-77 and between 1977-9, at the Staatstheatrer am Gärtnerplatz, Munich. The productions he took part in during this period included Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, Handel’s Alcina, Rossin’s La cenerentola, Britten’s Peter Grimes, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Wagner’s Lohengrin. As a consequence of his time in Germany he became a fluent German speaker. Whilst in Munich Philip married the pianist Jacqueline (Jackie) Grenville, but they separated when he returned to London and Covent Garden after six years in Germany.

Philip took part in the prestigious and ground-breaking Covent Garden tour to Japan 1979, one of 350 performers together with an enormous production team, to give performances of The Magic Flute, Tosca and Peter Grimes. The first performance on September 18th was Tosca and the final performance October 6th was The Magic Flute. Philip had notable success with the roles of Ned Keane in Peter Grimes and Second Priest in The Magic Flute. Among the great international stars were Thomas Allen and Geraint Evans, John Vickers, Montserrat Caballé and Eleana Cotrubas. The conductor was Colin Davis.

BBC Broadcasts ‘live’ from Covent Garden.

Between 1980 and 1982 Philip took part in a number of BBC ‘live’ broadcasts from Covent Garden, some of which were issued on record. In March 1980 he sang the role of a young nobleman Ascanio Petrucci in the first broadcast of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia which also starred Joan Sutherland and Alfredo Krauss and conducted by Richard Bonynge. The following month he once again appeared in the role of the Second Priest in a cast which included Stuart Burrows as Tamino, Kiri te Kanawa as Pamina and Thomas Allen as Papageno in August Everding’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In January 1981 he sang the role of Peter Schlémil in the sumptuous centenary production of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman together with Placido Domingo, Agnes Baltsa, Luciana Serra and Ileana Cotrubas, conducted George Prêtre, and in September that year sang the role of the ‘quack’ apothecary Ned Keene – one of the minor roles he made his own – in the legendary ‘Vickers’ Peter Grimes, starring the great Canadian tenor Jon Vickers as Grimes and Heather Harper as Ellen Orford, conducted by Colin Davis.

During this period, he also appeared with Janet Baker, Robert Tear and John Shirley-Quirk in Gluck’s Alceste in the minor roles of the Herald and Apollo, conducted by Charles Mackerras, and as Horatio in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet with Sherril Milnes and Joan Sutherland with Welsh National Opera conducted by Richard Bonynge. In January 1982 he took part in the broadcast of Thea Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, also starring Frederick Burchinal and Sandra Dugdale, and in February, La Boheme, in the important role of Schuanard, the musician and friend of Rodolfo who discovers that Mimi has died, together with Eleana Cotrubas and Neil Schicof, conducted by Lamberto Gardelli. In April 1982 he was a guest on Melodies for You, hosted by David Jacob, the Sunday morning music programme that was enjoyed by millions of listeners between 1967 and 2011.

Tragedy

It was during the 1982 Wexford Opera Festival when Philip was singing the part of Enrico in Haydn’s L’osola disabitata, that disaster struck as he awoke one morning to find that he had lost his voice. Although his voice returned briefly from time to time, something was clearly wrong and after consulting several Harley Street specialists he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which progressively began to affect his vocal chords. His career as an opera singer was over. Yet, despite this catastrophic blow, Philip bravely embarked on a second career as a London Blue Badge Guide. He passed the aural part of the qualification examination with ease but because of his dyslexia, was unable to take the written part of the examination until he suggested he could take it in German! After thirteen years of service as a guide, in 1989 he became a trainer for London Blue Badge Guides and continued to give advice and encouragement as a voice tutor. His lectures on Hampton Court Palace were particularly enjoyed.

During his last years he shared an apartment at Palace Court, Finchley Road, London, NW3, with a close Austrian friend Josepha Pointner and they married shortly before his death which occurred on 30th November 2009, after several years of declining health and many setbacks following a cerebral haemorrhage from which he never recovered consciousness. Philip was fondly recalled by his Blue Badge colleagues as being generous with his time and hospitality, always ready to offer support and kindly, encouraging advice. He was charming and articulate, and his triumph in overcoming his progressively debilitating health problems was an inspiration to all who knew him.

Philip was given mainly small and subsidiary roles during his career but would undoubtedly have progressed to secondary and even major roles in such operas as The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte and Fidelio, the operas of Donizetti and Verdi, and perhaps even the role of Billy Budd in Britten’s famous opera had not illness intervened.

Despite his excellent and idiomatic German, it is to be regretted that he never included Schubert’s Winterreise or the Lieder of Schumann, Brahms and Wolf in his repertoire, nor the French songs of Poulenc or the English songs of Vaughan Williams, Warlock and Gurney for which his distinctive light baritone voice, rich in timbre together with faultless diction, was ideally suited.

Andreas, June 2025

Sources

Isle of Man Newspaper Archive.

BBC Programme Index 1970-82.

Concert programmes, newspaper cuttings and photographs courtesy of Philip’s brother Alan Gelling, who generously gave his time talking to me about Philip’s life and career and kindly read and approved this article before publication.

Obituary of Philip Gelling in the Guide Post, January 2010, the newsletter of the Guild of Registered Tourist Guides.