For a generation of operagoers in South Africa, Lawrence Folley simply was Rigoletto, Nabucco, Macbeth, Giorgio Germont, Iago, Falstaff and a gallery of further Verdian roles. His repertoire was of course much wider than that, and it is as a host of other characters that he is fondly remembered by older audiences in London, where in the 1960s he was a principal baritone with Sadler’s Wells Opera. In both spheres of his career he made a deep impression on audiences and colleagues alike, and was valued as much for his imposing stage presence, burnished tone and subtle vocalism as for his unfailing wit and professionalism.

Born into a musical family in Benoni, near Johannesburg, Folley sang with local groups before moving to London in 1953. He worked as a health inspector and pub cleaner in order to finance his singing studies at Morley College, where he sang for Joan Cross, who offered him a scholarship to the London Opera School. His first professional engagement was on a 1957 UK tour of Lilac Time, and the following year he joined Sadler’s Wells, becoming a mainstay of a company that boasted several fine baritones.

His roles in London included the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades, the Father in Hansel and Gretel, Valentine in Faust, Agamemnon in La Belle Hélène, Leander in The Love for Three Oranges and Ramiro in L’Heure espagnole. He also played Sam in the first British performance of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.

In 1967 the Folley family returned to South Africa, where he rapidly established himself as the country’s leading Verdian. Rodrigo in Don Carlos became a signature role, but with the CAPAB and PACT companies in Cape Town and Pretoria respectively, his repertoire embraced Mozart, Donizetti and Puccini, Jokanaan in Salome, Balstrode in Peter Grimes and many parts in operetta and musicals. In Cape Town he sang Jokanaan and Scarpia to Leonie Rysanek’s final Salome and Tosca.

Retiring from the stage in 1993, he moved back to the UK to be near his daughters, and it was in Greenock, Scotland, that he died after suffering from skin cancer.

He married first, in 1953, Marie Lotter, a violinist. After her death in 1998, he married the theatre director Jacky Vermaas in 2001. She survives him, together with the three daughters of his first marriage.

Lawrence Folley, baritone, was born on December 6, 1928. He died on January 14, 2007, aged 78