RENOWNED BRITISH conductor Edward Downes and his wife, Joan, have ended their lives at the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, their children said in a statement yesterday.
“After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems,” they said.
Downes, who had a distinguished career at the Royal Opera House and with the BBC Philharmonic orchestra, was 85 when he died. He was “almost blind and increasingly deaf”, according to his son Caractacus and daughter Boudicca.
His wife Joan, a former ballet dancer and later personal assistant to Downes, was 74 and terminally ill, according to Downes’s agent Jonathan Groves.
“They died peacefully, and under circumstances of their own choosing, with the help of the Swiss organisation Dignitas, in Zurich,” the statement said. “They died last Friday. They both lived life to the full and considered themselves to be extremely lucky to have lived such rewarding lives, both professionally and personally. Our parents had no religious beliefs and there will be no funeral,” the statement continued.
The Metropolitan Police in London said they were investigating the deaths. Under British law, assisting suicide is a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. It is becoming routine now for officers to investigate whether in such increasingly common cases a crime was committed, to establish if others accompanied them to Switzerland and to submit a report to the crown prosecution service. It is unlikely any action will be taken, however.
Downes took up the violin as a boy, played the horn in the first performances of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes in 1945 and studied with German conductor Hermann Scherchen. An association of more than 50 years with London’s Royal Opera began in 1952, and his first job was as prompter to soprano Maria Callas in Bellini’s Norma.
Downes made his conducting debut for the company in 1953 and his last conducting performances at Covent Garden were in 2005 with 10 performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto.
In total, he conducted 49 different operas and more than 950 performances at the Royal Opera House, where he worked with some of the great singers of his generation like Luciano Pavarotti.
Downes also led the Australian Opera, conducting the first opera performance at the newly opened Sydney Opera House in 1973. – (Reuters)