Obituary, Steve Davislim (1967-2024)

The Australian lyric tenor Steve Davislim, whose discography included acclaimed recordings of rarities by Frank Martin and Bohuslav Martinů, has died aged 57.

Of Chinese and Irish ancestry, Davislim was born in George Town, Penang in 1967 and grew up in Melbourne, where he trained at the Victorian College of Arts. Initially a first-study horn-player, he was encouraged to develop his voice by the Australian soprano Joan Hammond, and spent three years with the Victoria State Opera before undertaking further training in Germany, Italy, Greece and Switzerland.

He began his European career in the mid-1990s with Zurich Opera, where his repertoire included Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Camille (The Merry Widow) and Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia). Debuts across Europe and the US soon followed, with highlights including Tom Rakewell (The Rake's Progress) at the Semperoper Dresden, David (Die Meistersinger) in Baden-Baden, Fenton (Falstaff) at Covent Garden, and Weber’s Oberon at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

In 2005 Davislim sang the title-role in Mozart’s Idomeneo for the season opening at La Scala, which won him widespread international acclaim: Variety described it as a ‘career-defining’ performance, noting that he combined ‘a dusky, meltingly gorgeous voice; a natural, endearing stage presence; and virtuoso technique’, whilst the Financial Times praised his 'balmy timbre and strong coloratura'. From that point onwards he began to undertake slightly heavier lyric assignments including Loge in Das Rheingold, Max in Der Freischütz and Tito in La clemenza di Tito, and two years later he returned to La Scala to create the role of Fikret Irmakli in the world premiere of Fabio Vacchi's Teneke (based on the novel by Turkish author Yaşar Kemal). 

Concert work was another important facet of Davislim’s career: his sweet-toned but assertive lyric tenor was especially well-suited to the tricky solo part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and he also excelled in the same composer’s Missa solemnis (which he recorded for René Jacobs three years ago), Haydn’s The Creation and Stabat Mater, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. Back on home ground in Australia, he collaborated regularly with Simone Young (in her capacities as both pianist and conductor): as well as working together at Opera Australia in operas including Das Rheingold and Eugene Onegin, the pair recorded an album of Strauss Lieder with the Orchestra Victoria in 2008, followed by a selection of Britten’s folksong settings a year later.

Davislim’s discography also includes a number of relative rarities, most notably Frank Martin’s secular oratorio Le vin herbé: based on a modern French version of the legend of Tristan and Iseult, the work was premiered in 1942 and received its first stereo recording (with Davislim as Tristan and Sandrine Piau as Iseult) in 2006. The recording was praised in the Gramophone Guide for Davislim’s ‘calm stateliness’, whilst The Guardian admired his ‘lyrically charged’ interpretation of the role. Other recording highlights included the solo part in Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 with the late Pierre Boulez, and the role of Michel on Sir Charles Mackerras’s Gramophone Award-winning recording of scenes from Martinů’s 1937 opera Juliette.

Davislim made what were to be his final staged operatic appearances in Australia last summer, as Idomeneo: his interpretation was widely acclaimed, with Opera Gazet praising his ‘unflinching stylistic accuracy and elegance’ and Classic Melbourne noting his ‘combination of vocal weight, beauty of tone and flexibility [which] is not readily found in a tenor’. His appearances in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s concert performances of Das Rheingold under Simone Young that November were equally well received, with The Sydney Morning Herald describing his Loge as ‘a gem of fluid vocal characterisation’ and Australian Arts Review applauding his ‘charm and fluidity’.

In a statement which appeared in Limelight Magazine yesterday, Young recounted that Davislim had been working with her in Berlin (preparing to sing the Scrivener in Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina) this May when he became suddenly and seriously ill; he died at home in Vienna on 11th August.

Steve Davislim - a selected discography