in Das Rheingold, Belmonte in The Seraglio, and David in Die Meistersinger. A greater part of his operatic repertoire consisted of character roles, in which, in the view of The Times, "his humour and his sharp human perceptions were given free rein". They included Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Jaquino in Fidelio, Spalanzani in The Tales of Hoffmann, Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier, and Aegisth in Elektra. Later years In 1980 Tear made his debut as a conductor with the Thames Chamber Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Although he subsequently conducted the London Mozart Players and the Minneapolis, English Chamber, London Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras, he found that he was temperamentally unsuited to conducting, because his friendly and easy-going nature made it difficult for him to exert the authority and discipline required in conductors. He found more satisfaction in his role as a teacher; he was the first incumbent of the international chair of singing at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He held it from 1987 to 1989, and was judged a success by students and staff. After his official retirement, Tear made a cameo appearance at the 2009 Proms as Bunthorne's solicitor in a performance of Patience, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, whose final Prom appearance it also was. Tear died of bronchopneumonia, secondary to oesophageal cancer, at his home in Hammersmith, London, on 29 March 2011. A memorial service was held in September of that year at St Martin-in-the-Fields, at which readings and songs were performed by Tear's former colleagues including Dame Janet Baker, Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark Ainsley, Sir John Tomlinson and Dame Felicity Palmer. Honours and publications In 1984 Tear was appointed CBE. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and of King's College, Cambridge. Tear published two volumes of memoirs: Tear Here (1990) and Singer Beware (1995). In a memorial tribute Robert Ponsonby commented that they were both written "in a style so odd, so metaphysical and so idiosyncratic as sometimes to defy comprehension", although Tear's "seriousness and his interest in things spiritual (he had discovered Buddhism) were self-evident – as they were in his paintings and drawings)." Recordings Tear made more than 250 records, and wrote in his Who's Who entry that he had worked for every major recording company. Roles he sang on disc range from Uriel