John Reed, 94, a silver-tongued Gilbert and Sullivan singer renowned for urbanity, verbal inanity, touching humanity, antic insanity and (a noteworthy trait in a world-famous player quite used to performing for crowned heads of state) a singular lack of theatrical vanity, died in Halifax, England, on his birthday, Feb. 13.

From 1959 to 1979, Reed was the principal comedian of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the London professional troupe. With the company, he appeared often in the United States and around the world; in the 1980s he was a frequent guest star with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players.

A butcher's son from the north of England, Reed was a largely self-taught stage performer who fell into Gilbert and Sullivan by chance. He did not have a trained operatic voice and, in many interviews over the years, was the first to admit it. His light baritone was, fittingly, reedy and could sometimes fail him in the upper registers.

But for a generation of fans, Reed was the memorable embodiment of Gilbert and Sullivan's "little man" roles, among them John Wellington Wells, the title character of "The Sorcerer"; Major-General Stanley, the very model of et cetera from "The Pirates of Penzance," and Ko-Ko, the nebbish turned lord high executioner in "The Mikado," a part he also played in the 1967 film version.

Ernst Beyeler, 88, one of the world's foremost dealers of modern art, who established a jewel-like small museum, the Fondation Beyeler, to display his private collection of works by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Giacometti and others, died Thursday in Riehen, Switzerland.

Beyeler took over a small book and print shop in Basel, Switzerland, at age 24 and, relying on his discerning eye, refined taste and sharp business sense, became Europe's preeminent dealer in modern art.

His extensive network of wealthy clients and his own considerable financial resources made him a constant and influential presence whenever top-quality work came up for sale.

Raymond Mason, 87, a British sculptor whose teeming street scenes and narrative tableaux evoked an animated world of ordinary people caught up in the drama of daily life, died of heart failure on Feb. 14 in Paris.

Mason was something of an outsider in the United States, but in Britain and France he was held in high regard as a sculptor in the grand tradition extending from the Romanesque carvers to Rodin.

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