Tenor Neville Griffiths joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company chorus in April 1949, and was soon playing a small part in The Yeomen of the Guard. He became principal tenor in August 1950 and during the 1950-51 season he regularly appeared as Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Frederic, Nanki-Poo, and Marco in The Gondoliers. He played these rôles regularly during his last five seasons with the Company, finally leaving the Company in 1958.
He may be heard on three D'Oyly Carte Opera Company recordings from the early 1950s, in roles he never played on stage: the 1950 Yeomen of the Guard (in which he sings Leonard Meryll as well as First Yeoman), the 1951 Patience (in which he sings most of the music of the Duke of Dunstable due to the indisposition of Leonard Osborn), and the 1953 Sorcerer (as Alexis). While Decca recorded none of his own major parts during his tenure, he did get to sing Nanki-Poo on a 1951 BBC radio broadcast.
Neville Griffiths continued to sing in opera after his retirement from D'Oyly Carte, and performed with Sadler's Wells Opera and the English National Opera in the 1970s and 1980s.
