In the early ’60s he joined the Channel Nine singers. This was a step up because he was on the road and a company car was included! By day, he was a salesman – first selling socks for Holeproof, then selling paint for Dean’s the Paint People. The “Porties”, as they were known to their many promising students, were a much-loved Austrian couple who would often invite their students to their home to talk about singing and learn a bit of German over a cup of tea. His next move was to Melbourne where he studied with Heinrich and Annie Portnoj. He was a great performer with an equally great voice.
Opera in Australia was in its infancy and very much a part-time job for singers and musicians, and the young performers at that time did whatever work they could between musical engagements.Ĭlifford Grant in Lucia di Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland.Ĭliff would sing at weddings, fundraising functions, nightclubs and ladies’ nights.
His very first operatic role came in 1952 in Lucia di Lammermoor with the NSW National Opera. He attended St Andrew’s Cathedral School and later took lessons at the Sydney Conservatorium. There were musical genes in the family – his father had a fine bass voice, and his maternal grandmother played the piano for the silent movies. He would also appear in Eugene Onegin, La Traviata and Semiramide in a tour that was both rigorous and highly successful – a tour that would produce another “find” – a young Italian tenor by the name of Luciano Pavarotti.Ĭlifford Scantlebury Grant was born in Randwick, Sydney, to Patrick “Pomp” Grant (a commercial artist), and Rotha (nee Millar) Grant. In 1965, when Joan Sutherland together with her conductor husband, Richard Bonynge, made a triumphant return to Australia for the magnificent Sutherland-Williamson Tour, Clifford Grant would appear alongside Joan Sutherland as Raimondo, the leading bass role in the gala presentation of Lucia di Lammermoor at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre. His name was Clifford Grant and The Sydney Morning Herald music critic at the time, Lindsey Browne, commented: “Here was the one really distinguished voice in the competition, and one that could conceivably hold its ground in the best of operatic company.” When the finals of the Sydney Sun Aria were held in the Sydney Town Hall in 1956, a young singer from Mosman was placed eighth. CLIFFORD GRANT OAM September 11, 1930-October 7, 2021