Helen Watts

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For the British suffragette, see Helen Kirkpatrick Watts.

Helen Watts

CBE (7 December 1927 – 7 October 2009) was a Welsh contralto.[1]

Early life

Helen Josephine Watts was born in

Abbots Bromley School for Girls, and at the Royal Academy of Music[2] where she was taught voice by Caroline Hatchard.[3]

Career

She began her career with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, and was a regular broadcaster on the Welsh Home Service. She subsequently had a distinguished career as an

The Proms, in 1955. She toured the Soviet Union with the English Opera Group in 1964, singing the lead in The Rape of Lucretia.[4] She was also known for her 1969 performances as Mistress Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff with the Welsh National Opera.[1] In 1969, her voice was described by a critic as "not particularly large, but the general purity and warmth of its tone gives it a direct, communicative power. And the singer uses it with taste and imagination."[5]

The many recordings by Helen Watts included a "monumental" edition of forty Bach cantatas, with Helmuth Rilling conducting the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart. She also made several recordings as a soloist in Handel's Messiah, various roles in Wagner's Ring cycle, and an album of Welsh songs with the Treorchy male voice choir.[4]

She was asked to choose her favourite record, book, and luxury as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1970. They were:

  • favourite track: Betrachte Meine Seele, from the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach; book: Illustrated book on gardening; luxury: Velasquez, The Maids of Honour, (Las Meninas) in the Prado.[6]

In 1978, she was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[2]

Personal life

Helen Watts married Michael Mitchell, a viola player with the London Symphony Orchestra, in 1980. Mitchell died in 2007.[1] Watts died on 7 October 2009 at the age of 81.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Helen Watts obituary in the". Daily Telegraph. 1 November 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Helen Watts: fine contralto who enjoyed a long and varied career". Times Online. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
  3. ^ Obituary for Helen Watts - The Guardian 15 October 2009
  4. ^ a b Patrick O'Connor, "Helen Watts Obituary" The Guardian (15 October 2009).
  5. ^ Raymond C. Ericson, "Welsh Contralto Bows as Soloist" New York Times (7 February 1969): 30.
  6. ^ Helen Watts, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4 (14 September 1970).
  7. ^ Profile, gramophone.co.uk; accessed 12 April 2014.

Literature

  • D. Brook, Singers of Today (Revised Edition - Rockliff, London 1958), pp. 198–200.

External links

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