| Biography | ( b Harrogate , 22Nov1949). English mezzo-soprano. She studied at Trinity College, London. In 1986 she sang Mallika (Lakmé) at Monte Carlo, Jocasta (Oedipus rex) in Madrid and Nancy (Albert Herring) with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, for whom she created Anna Arild ( Nigel Osborne's Electrification of the Soviet Union) in 1987. She also created Behemoth in York Höller's Der Meister und Margarita at the Paris Opéra (1989). Her Covent Garden début was as Second Audition in the British première of Un re in ascolto (1989), which she also sang at Opéra Bastille (1991). Her roles include Cherubino, Erda, Béla Bartók's Judith and Maurice Ravel's Concepcion. With her warm-toned, flexible voice and handsome appearance, she excels in parts such as Lady de Hautdesert in Harrison Birtwistle's Gawain, which she created at Covent Garden (1991). |