Partner receives knighthood on behalf of late opera director Sir Graham Vick

Sir Graham, 67, died from complications of Covid-19 in July, having learned six months earlier that he was to be knighted.

Ronald Howell with the knighthood conferred on his late partner, Sir Graham Vick, by the Prince of Wales during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)

A knighthood honouring the career of trailblazing opera director Sir Graham Vick has been received by his partner, eight months after his death.

Sir Graham, 67, died from complications of Covid-19 in July, having learned six months earlier that he was to be knighted for services to music and to the regions.

He was the founder and artistic director of the Birmingham Opera Company (BOC) and created projects which were designed to reach new audiences.

After collecting the knighthood from the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Windsor Castle, Sir Graham’s civil partner Ronald Howell said: “I am overwhelmed and proud and at the same time monumentally sad that Graham is not here doing it himself because it is his honour.”

Sir Graham Vick with his CBE in 2009 (Anthony Devlin/PA) (PA Archive)

Sir Graham’s work included shows on many of the world’s most prestigious stages along with low-budget productions in unconventional venues.

Mr Howell, a choreographer, said: “He was a great man and he was just a lad from Liverpool.

“He worked super hard for this. I know the hours he put in and they have been many. I also know the communities that he touched and the people’s lives that he changed with music and opera.

“There are so many people he has brought in to the operatic musical fraternity, including people standing in cold factories or opening the doors to rehearse with a community of people.”

He said “thousands and thousands of people have been changed by this man” and his mission was to “democratise opera so it was brought to the people who could least afford it”.

Sir Graham started to make his mark on the world of opera while he was still in his early 20s when he founded a small touring company to take the art form to remote communities in the Highlands and Islands.

The 1980s saw him working with a group of 300 unemployed young people on Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story in an abandoned mill in Yorkshire.

He accepted the knighthood in the hope it would make it much easier for him to walk into key meetings with potential sponsors, or arts and British councils, to drive on his aim to bring opera to people of all classes and backgrounds if he had the title Sir Graham.

Ronald Howell with the knighthood conferred on his late partner, Sir Graham Vick, by the Prince of Wales during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)

Mr Howell, who had been with Sir Graham for 32 years, also recalled joking with him about if he would become a lady, like all the wives of men who have been honoured with a knighthood.

He said: “(I told Graham) The company needs the assistance and the money in order for you to do the work you want to do with the community and get the message out to a wider demographic of people.

“The name will help, so take it – plus I want to be a lady.”

Italy’s La Scala in Milan and Maggio Musicale in Florence, New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Mariinsky Opera in St Petersburg were some of the locations where Sir Graham’s productions were seen.

His production of Verdi’s Falstaff opened the newly refurbished Royal Opera House and between 1992 and 2000 he was director of productions at Glyndebourne.

By the time he founded the BOC in 1987 with help from Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England, Sir Graham viewed his work there as “complementary to his international directing career and was adamant that excellence and accessibility are not at odds”, a company spokesman said.

He won many international awards, including the Premio Abbiati in Italy and the South Bank Show Award.

Sir Graham was a Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, honorary professor of music at the University of Birmingham, international chair of opera at the Royal Northern College of Music and was visiting professor of opera studies at Oxford University.

He was made a CBE for services to opera in June 2009.