Simplify the following text for a Grade 8 native English-speaking person.
Original: Philip Gordon Langridge CBE ( 16 December 1939 -- 5 March 2010 ) was an English tenor , considered to be among the foremost exponents of English opera and oratorio .
Simplified: Philip Langridge ( born Hawkshurst , Kent , 16 December 1939 ; died 5 March 2010 was an British tenor .