| Biography | Jill Gomez, Countess of Northesk (born September 21, 1942) is a Trinidadian and British soprano of Hispanic origin.
She was born in Guyana to a Hispano-Trinidadian father and British mother, both white; was raised in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and has made her career primarily in the United Kingdom. After studying briefly at St. Joseph's Convent (Port of Spain) in Trinidad and dominating at the islands' biennial Music Festival, she moved to England at 13, where she studied at London's Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music.
She made her stage debut as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1968. She then created the role of Flora in The Knot Garden at the Royal Opera, London in 1970 and that of the Countess in Thea Musgrave's The Voice of Ariadne at the Aldeburgh Festival in (1973). She also appeared in productions by the English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Oper Frankfurt and others. Her roles included Mélisande, Fiordiligi and the Governess.
In 1995 she created the lead role of the Duchess of Argyll in Powder Her Face. Her recording of the latter role was nominated for a Grammy Award, and in Allmusic Erik Eriksson wrote: "Gomez's portrayal is a tour de force, alternately opulent and unhinged. She achieves the difficult task of making a figure of ridicule into a person who evokes sympathy from the listener."Gomez lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband, music critic Patrick Carnegy, 15th Earl of Northesk. |