| Mimi La Contessa Electra Tatyana |
La Boheme Le Nozze di Figaro Idomeneo Eugene Onegin |
Puccini Mozart Mozart Tchaikovsky |
During this time her concert repertoire took her to all the major venues in Britain singing works which included Mahler 2nd 4th and 8th Symphonies, Verdi Requiem Oratorios by Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Rossini, Britten. Song Cycles by Wagner, Strauss, Sibelius and Schumann Recitals of an eclectic nature including Lieder, Chanson, Italian arias and English and Scottish songs. She sang in her beloved Scotland with the major orchestras and was the first Scottish soprano to sing in the opening concert of the Edinburgh Festival when she sang in Beethoven's 9th Symphony there in 1982. Previously in that year she was introduced by Lord Olivier on to the stage at The London Coliseum, when she sang accompanied by the massed bands of the Royal Marines, the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Air Force, in the presence of The Prince of Wales as the British Theatre Saluted our troops on returning from the Falklands War. The year before she had sung in the presence of her Majesty The Queen when English National Opera had celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Her outgoing personality led to many television and radio appearances where she was asked to express her opinions on wide ranging subjects. She appeared on the Food Programme where she reviewed cookery books, Three's Company with Geraint Evans, Phone In programmes on Radio about singing, one with Benjamin Luxon, Pebble Mill at One with Dame Eva Turner the first British International Soprano and her teacher for over twenty years and Desert Island Discs with Roy Plumley introducing it. She was photographed by David Bailey "the photographer of that time," for The Observer Supplement and in another supplement by the same paper, tipped as a name to be watched. Among the other twelve people named were Jeremy Irons, Harriet Walter, Jonathan Hyde and Julie Walters. She sang with Scottish opera to great acclaim where her roles included:
| Ariadne Miss Jessell Elvira Amelia Eva |
Ariadne auf Naxos The Turn of the Screw Don Giovanni Simon Boccanegra Die Meistersinger |
Strauss Britten Mozart Verdi Wagner |
She sang many of these roles again as well as new ones such as Aida-Verdi, Tosca-Puccini with English National Opera and also at this time enjoyed singing with the Netherlands Opera. When she sang Isolde with Welsh National Opera she became an international singer overnight at the age of thirty one and the recording of Tristan und Isolde conducted by Sir Reginald Goodall with the Welsh National Opera won awards for its outstanding quality of performance. Her international career took her to many of the major European and American Opera Houses. At Dallas she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre by Wagner and one of her performances there was given America's best operatic broadcast of the year award. Her projected plans included La Scala and The Metropolitan Opera House but they were not to be. She did however sing Fidelio and Sieglinde at The Royal Opera House before disaster struck. After a serious illness she retired with great regret from the operatic stage and spent time in therapy recovering from this loss. She now has a flourishing teaching practice in her home in Surrey. She has a husband Peter, a daughter Kirsty and a son-in-law Scott. Cats entered her life by mistake and she still has two cats both black. Her hobbies are writing, cycling, swimming, gardening, antiquing, cooking and eating and drinking wine with friends at home, on the telephone and all over the world.
