Heather Harper

Heather Harper MBE (born 8 May 1930) is an Irish operatic soprano.

She was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she received her early musical training. She studied piano at the Trinity College of Music in London, with voice as a second subject, and sang with the BBC chorus.

Her professional debut came in 1954 in "Medea" at the Oxford University Opera Club. From 1956 to 1975, she was a member of the English Opera Group. She is noted for her performance of Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, the title role in Strauss's "Arabella", Ellen Orford in Britten's "Peter Grimes", and the Governess in Britten's "The Turn of the Screw".

Harper has also had an extensive concert career, including singing in the premiere of Britten's "War Requiem" in 1962, famously substituting for Galina Vishnevskaya on 10 days' notice. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/02/db0202.xml Obituary for Meredith Davies, "Telegraph", 2 April 2005.] ] [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/obituary/0,,1447681,00.html Philip Reed, Obituary for Meredith Davies. "The Guardian", 30 March 2005] ] She appeared at Covent Garden, Bayreuth, San Francisco and the Metropolitan Opera (Contessa Almaviva in "Le nozze di Figaro" and in "Peter Grimes"). At the Belfast Last Night of the Proms in 1985, she gave the world première of Malcolm Williamson's song-cycle "Next Year in Jerusalem" to international critical acclaim.

Her recordings include "Peter Grimes" in both audio and video [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,1054615,00.html Andrew Clements, "Britten: Peter Grimes, Royal Opera". "The Guardian", 3 October 2003.] ] formats, as well as the "War Requiem" (Chandos) [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,,296408,00.html Andrew Clements, "Keynotes". "The Guardian", 23 April 1999.] ] . More recently, a live concert performance of Britten's "Our Hunting Fathers" has been issued on the London Philharmonic Orchestra's own label. [ [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/fridayreview/story/0,,1472385,00.html Andrew Clements, "Wagner: Orchestral Excerpts from Die Meistersinger, etc: London Philharmonic/ Tennstedt". "The Guardian", 29 April 2005.] ]

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