Rosalind Plowright

Rosalind Anne Plowright OBE (born 21 May 1949) is an English opera singer who spent much of her career as a soprano but later returned to the stage in mezzo-soprano roles.

Life and career

Rosalind Plowright was born in Worksop and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and at the London Opera Centre.

Early career

Plowright made her professional debut with Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1975 as Agathe. [Entry for "Plowright, Rosalind" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera. John Warrack and Ewan West. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press] She sang Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni" and the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro" with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1976 and 1977. Also in 1975, she appeared with both Welsh National Opera and English National Opera as the Page in "Salome". She then appeared with ENO in the roles of Tosca, Elisabeth de Valois in "Don Carlos", Miss Jessel in "The Turn of the Screw", Hélène in Verdi's "Les vêpres siciliennes", and Elizabeth I in Donizetti's "Maria Stuarda". Her recording of the last of these roles, with Janet Baker as Mary, Queen of Scots, brought her wider recognition. [http://www.answers.com/topic/rosalind-plowright?cat=entertainment Profile by Erik Eriksson, All Music Guide, available at Answers.com] ] Plowright also appeared with Kent Opera She earned good notices in 1979 for her Fennimore in Delius' "Fennimore and Gerda" at London's Camden Festival.

International career

In 1980, Plowright sang Manon Lescaut at Torre del Lago, Aida in Frankfurt, Ariadne in Berne and Ortlinde at the Royal Opera House. Her American debut was at San Diego as Medora in the United States premiere of Verdi's "Il corsaro". Her debut at La Scala came in 1983 when she sang Suor Angelica.

Since then, she has performed in major opera houses and companies around the world including Covent Garden, Hamburg (from 1982), Madrid (from 1982), Verona (from 1985), the Paris Opera (from 1987), Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Vienna State Opera, Athens, Rome (from 1990), The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Arena di Verona, Florence, La Fenice Venice, the Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires and Teatro Municipal Santiago.Fact|date=June 2007

With Jose Carreras, she sang "Andrea Chenier" at Covent Garden and recorded "La forza del destino" for Deutsche Grammophon. With Placido Domingo she has performed "Il trovatore" at Covent Garden. With Luciano Pavarotti she performed "Aida" at Covent Garden and a gala concert for 25,000 at the Arena of Verona.Fact|date=June 2007 She sang Cherubini's Medea in a number of venues and countries.

Among the many conductors with whom she has worked are Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bernard Haitink, Antonio Pappano, Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling, Mark Elder, Roger Norrington and Giuseppe Patanè. She also gave recitals with the late Geoffrey Parsons in over 20 international festivals.Fact|date=June 2007

As an actress Rosalind Plowright has appeared as Grace Vosper in the BBC series "The House of Eliott" and with Anglia Television the part of Hermione Harefield in their adaptation of the Jilly Cooper novel "The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous". As a theatre artist, Plowright has appeared in the new musical comedy "Two’s a Crowd".

In the 2007-8 season Rosalind Plowright is scheduled to return to Covent Garden as Fricka in the "Ring", the Metropolitan Opera as Gertrude in "Hänsel und Gretel" and to the Paris Opera as the Mother in "Il prigioniero".

Awards

Rosalind Plowright was awarded an OBE in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to music. [LondonGazette|issue=58358|supp=yes|notarchive=yes|startpage=9|endpage=12|date=16 June 2007|accessdate=2008-01-09]

She was awarded the Prix Fondation Fanny Heldy for her performance as Leonora in the 1984 recording of Verdi's "Il trovatore" with Domingo, Brigitte Fassbaender, Giorgio Zancanaro, Yevgeny Nesterenko and the Choir and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Carlo Maria Giulini. (Deutsche Grammophon code 423-858-2.)

Other recordings

Other recordings include "Maria Stuarda", "Otello", "Aida" and "Hänsel und Gretel", all for the Opera in English series for Chandos Records, "Elijah" also for Chandos, "La vestale" for Orfeo, "Les contes d'Hoffmann" for EMI and "La forza del destino" and Mahler's "2nd Symphony" for Deutsche Grammophon.

Notes

ources

*"The Oxford Dictionary of Opera", by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
*"New Grove Dictionary of Opera" (1992), article by Elizabeth Forbes, vol 3, p.1037
*"Who's Who in British Opera" ed. Nicky Adam (Scolar Press, 1993) ISBN 0 859 67 894 6

External links

* [http://www.rosalindplowright.co.uk/ Plowright's personal website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687509/ Information from the IMDB database]