Born Nigel Douglas Leigh Pemberton in
Torry Hill, Kent, he was the middle of three brothers. He adopted his first two Christian names alone as his stage name when he began singing professionally outside the UK, as these were easier to pronounce for non-English people, and continued to use them thereafter. Douglas took Classics at
Magdalen College, Oxford, and, initially as a
baritone, sang as often as possible in amateur productions. He then spent 18 months working at
Lloyds Insurance before he undertook singing lessons with
Alfred Piccaver, who was living in London at the time. A casual remark to a friend about dissatisfaction with his work and that he had to quit his job and study singing, led him to learn that Piccaver, who had been a star tenor at the
Vienna State Opera from 1910 until just before the
Anschluss was living in
Putney. After six months of study, Piccaver was invited back to Vienna for the re-opening of the Vienna State Opera in 1955, but wanted to continue teaching Douglas. Douglas made his professional debut at the
Kammeroper in 1959 as Rodolfo, and went on to sing at the
Volksoper. His first professional contracts were in
Biel/
Solothurn where he sang the tenor leads in
Madama Butterfly,
La Traviata,
Don Giovanni,
Barbiere,
Undine and
Nabucco, as well as Rosillon in
The Merry Widow, then went to
Coblenz in Germany where he added six more leading roles. In his next contract, in
Basel, the director Dr Friedrich Schramm offered as his first two roles the Drum-Major in
Wozzeck and Danilo in
The Merry Widow, which set the scene for much of Douglas's career: modern or contemporary opera, and operetta. In 1965 Douglas's Barinkay in London Sadler's Wells was noted – "a pleasure to see a singer who knows how to put over a number with personality and panache. His basically rather dry voice hardens under pressure, but his softer, lyrical singing is well turned". Douglas played "a handsome Lorenzo" in the Italian version of
Fra Diavolo at the farewell season for
Tom Walsh at
Wexford in 1966. Although later in life he named his favourite roles as Rodolfo and Lionel, he stated that his great passion was
Britten operas: "The greatest excitement in my career was working with Benjamin Britten". The role also brought him his only appearance at the
Henry Wood Proms, in 1979. He also sang for the UK opera companies roles such as Ralph Rackstraw in
H.M.S. Pinafore, where he "caught just the right degree of self-parody", an old man in
Guntram conducted by
John Pritchard, Loge in
Welsh National Opera's Göran Järvefelt
Ring Cycle in 1983, Shapkin in
From the House of the Dead, and the Devil in Rimsky Korsakov's
Christmas Eve at English National Opera in 1988. The latter roles represented what one reviewer described as his "gallery of dotty eccentrics", Other roles creations during his career included Jack Worthing in
Bunbury by
Paul Burkhard (Basel, 1964), He translated
The Count of Luxembourg and
Countess Maritza for
New Sadler's Wells Opera in 1983. His recordings include
Owen Wingrave (1970, Decca),
The Gypsy Baron (1965,
His Master's Voice),
Salome (1961, Decca), and an operetta recital with
Adele Leigh, and the orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper conducted by
Rudolf Bibl (1960, Philips). ==References==