Tenor Eduardo Asquez was born on 7 June 1919 in La Línea de Concepción in the province of Cádiz, Spain. His father, settled in Gibraltar, was of English origins (Asquith); his mother was Spanish. As the family moved to Morocco, the mother discovered her son's vocal abilities and had him study singing. He enrolled at the Conservatory of Casablanca under Maestro Pigem, and eventually completed his studies in France (Paris) and Italy.

Asquez came to Britain in 1950 and became here the leading tenor in the Carl Rosa Opera Company, Britain's oldest opera company, which was on the road 30 weeks a year, performing seven operas a week. He was particularly noted as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, the Duke in Rigoletto (a role he performed some 200 times) and Faust in the opera of the same name.

Apart from his career as a singer, he was also reputed for his vocal classes and trained a significant amount of singers, including Valerie Masterson, Patrick Powers, Marie Collier and Pauline Tinsley, to name a few. When the Carl Rosa Opera Company, heavily dependent on aid from the Arts Council, suffered a financial crisis as subventions were withdrawn, Asquez was forced to leave and sang for a while in musicals and on the radio. The situation was not satisfactory and Asquez decided to rely more on his teaching. He became known not only for helping young singers on their way, but was in fact also considered an expert in recovering voices in distress. An anecdote has it that even Maria Callas sought out Asquez when she experienced vocal problems. She had three classes with the tenor, who adviced her to stop singing for at least six months, allowing Asquez to reline her voice and re-build it. Unfortunately her management did not take this very well and insisted on her returning to the stage. The rest is history.

Eduardo Asquez passed away in 1998 at the age of 79.

Eduardo Asquez is followed by his son, tenor and vocal teacher Victor Asquez (Asquith), who teaches the methods passed on to him by his father. http://www.singing-teacher.net/

Many thanks to Victor Asquith for providing the information and the photo of his father.