Maureen Guy

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Maureen Guy (born July 10, 1932 in Penclawdd , Wales , † February 14, 2015 in Haverfordwest , Pembrokeshire , Wales) was a British opera singer with a mezzo-soprano voice .

Life

Ruth Maureen Guy was born in a small village in Wales west of Swansea, the youngest of six children to a Welsh miner . She grew up listening to church music that was performed at the nearby Bethel Chapel. She attended school in the neighboring village of Gowerton . At the age of 18, she won a Glamorgan County Scholarship which allowed her to study music in London . She attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama . In 1955 she was a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards . She made her debut as an opera singer at Sadler's Wells Opera in London as Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos . In 1957 she gave a recital in London's Wigmore Hall , where she sang arias by Georg Friedrich Handel and Gaetano Donizetti . It received excellent reviews for this, in which the technical safety of its counter-old was particularly emphasized.

Maureen Guy was a regular concert soloist in London in the early 1960s. She kicked u. a. with the London Mozart Players under Harry Blech and the Philharmonia Orchestra London under Otto Klemperer . She also sang Olga in Eugene Onegin at Sadler's Wells Opera . She received consistently positive reviews, although she often only sang supporting roles on the opera stage.

In 1963 she was hired as the so-called "First Mezzo-Soprano" at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden . She entered there u. a. in Hans Hotter's production of Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung , as Floßhilde alongside Rita Hunter and Birgit Nilsson under the musical direction of Sir Georg Solti , as Maddalena in Rigoletto under Sir Edward Downes (alongside Peter Glossop in the title role) and as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly .

At the inauguration of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle , she sang on July 1, 1969 at a gala concert with the BBC Welsh Orchestra, in which a total of 15 Welsh artists performed, alongside Geraint Evans , Gwyneth Jones and Margaret Price . In 1972 she became a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble for three seasons . In 1977 she sang the old Countess in the opera Queen of Spades at the Welsh National Opera under the conductor David Lloyd-Jones .

Guy has performed at opera houses in France , Spain and Portugal ; she sang in Budapest , Israel , New Zealand and toured Australia . In 1970 she was the alto soloist in a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Jerusalem , with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor Zubin Mehta . In 1971, on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Igor Stravinsky , she sang Iokaste in a performance of the composer's opera Oedipus Rex in the theater of Herodes Atticus in Athens .

In the 1960s and 1970s she also appeared several times at the Proms concerts. She sang in 1963 in the Proms concert on the occasion of Richard Wagner's 150th birthday under the musical direction of Sir Georg Solti, in 1968 in the memorial concert for Sir Malcolm Sargent under the direction of Sir Colin Davis at the so-called "First Night of the Proms" and in 1976 the alto part in the annual performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony .

After finishing her singing career, Guy worked as a singing professor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama until 1998 ; after that she gave private singing lessons until a few weeks before her death.

Guy was married to the British tenor John Mitchinson (* 1932). They were married on May 8, 1958 in the church of Guy's hometown of Penclawdd in Glamorganshire . The marriage resulted in two sons. Guy and Mitchinson met at a performance of Elijah in Wales.

repertoire

Guy sang mainly the dramatic roles for mezzo-soprano and alto on the opera stage. Her roles included a. the title role in Orfeo ed Euridice , Azucena in Il trovatore , Princess Eboli in Don Carlos , Amneris in Aida , Adriano in Rienzi , Fricka and Erda in Der Ring des Nibelungen , Dalila in Samson et Dalila and, as a character role, Mrs. Sedley in Peter Grimes .

Audio documents

There are only a few commercial, official audio records of Maureen Guy. In 1963 she sang the role of Floßhilde in Götterdämmerung in Sir Georg Solti's legendary Decca recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in Vienna . The role of Maddalena in Rigoletto is preserved in a private recording from Sadler's Wells Opera, as well as in a Rigoletto cross-section from HMV . In a live recording from the Covent Garden Opera in London from 1961, she sang the role of Grimgerde in Die Walküre under the musical direction of Sir Georg Solti .

In a live concert by the BBC from 1978, Guy sings arias from operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck , Camille Saint-Saëns and Giuseppe Verdi .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Maureen Guy, opera singer - obituary ; Obituary in: The Daily Telegraph, February 24, 2015
  2. ↑ a b Maureen Mitchinson obituary; Official website of Philomusica. Retrieved March 3, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Guy, Maureen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guy, Maureen Ruth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British opera singer in the mezzo-soprano voice range
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Penclawdd , Wales , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2015
Place of death Haverfordwest , Pembrokeshire , Wales