Notable for his burnished baritone, genial personality and seemingly effortless vocal projection, Benjamin Luxon, who has died aged 87, was successful in such contrasting genres as opera, oratorio, lieder, folk song and Victorian parlour ballads.
Stricken in his early 50s by a rare auto-immune disease that caused him to lose his hearing, he was forced to abandon his international career, settling in rural Massachusetts where he was able to deploy his dramatic talents as an actor, director and reciter – not least of Victorian poems and songs.
