Ann Howard (mezzo-soprano)
Ann Howard | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ann Pauline Swadling 22 July 1934 Streatham, London |
| Died | 26 March 2014 (aged 79) Surbiton, Surrey |
| Occupation | Mezzo-soprano |
| Employer | English National Opera et al |
| Known for | Opera singing |
Ann Howard born Ann Pauline Swadling (22 July 1934 – 26 March 2014) was an English mezzo-soprano known particularly for portraying Carmen.
Early life
The daughter of William Alfred Swadling and his wife Gladys Winifred Swadling (née Howell), Ann Pauline Swadling was born in Streatham, London on 22 July 1934.[1] Her father was an engineer.[2] She left school aged 15 and went to work as an assistant in a jewelry shop, later moving to Garrard & Co, jewellers, which had its own operatic group. In her spare time she took singing lessons with Topliss Green and Rodolpha Lhombino;[3] studying with them in London from the time she left middle school until 1962.[4][1]
Howard gained early stage experience performing in amateur productions with the Geoids Amateur Operatic Society;[5] first performing with the company in Merrie England in 1949.[1] She met pianist Keith Desmond Giles while doing this production, and they later married on 20 March 1954. The couple one daughter together.[1] She was able to resign from shop work when she began appearing in musicals and pantomimes.[6]
Career
Howard began her professional career as a musical theatre actress;[7] making her stage debut under her married name Ann Giles at the Palace Theatre, Manchester on 13 March 1956 in Jack Waller and Hugh Ross Williamson's musical Wild Grows the Heather.[1] She was listed as portraying one of the singers in the ensemble in this production when it transferred to the London Hippodrome the following May.[8] At Waller's suggestion, she adopted the stage name Ann Howard, and then moved into working in pantomime.[1] She spent four years working as principal boy in pantomime productions opposite stars like Tommy Steele.[2]
She reputedly had only seen one opera when she successfully auditioned for the chorus of the Royal Opera in London in 1960, and won a scholarship to study with Dominique Modesti in Paris. After singing minor roles at Covent Garden, she joined Sadler's Wells Opera as a principal, continuing to appear with them after they became the English National Opera in 1974. Her appearances with other companies included Scottish Opera, where she sung Fricka in Wagner's Die Walküre,[3] a role she reprised in Reginald Goodall's 1973 Ring Cycle.[6]
Howard's performance as Carmen in 1970 brought her fame. By 1984 she had sung the role more than 250 times, including appearing with Plácido Domingo in the United States. After 1984 she concentrated on character roles of the kind she described as 'witches and bitches', including the old crone in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Delilah in Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah. She also worked beyond opera, recording The Arcadians in 1968 and appearing in Sondheim's Into the Woods in the West End of London in 1990. The following year she appeared alongside Eric Idle at the Royal Variety Performance in a rendition of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. She retired from the stage in 1999, but continued to teach young singers.[3]
Howard died aged 79 at home in Surbiton, Surrey, on 26 March 2014 as a result of a pulmonary embolism and deep-vein thrombosis.[3][1]
References
Citations
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Webber, Christopher. "Howard, Ann [real name Ann Pauline Giles, née Swadling] (1934–2014)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.108499. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- 1 2 "Four Years as Principal Boy". The Observer. 1 November 1970. p. 9.
- 1 2 3 4 "Ann Howard – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 2 April 2014. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
- ↑ Kutsch & Riemens 2003, p. 2150.
- ↑ Baddeley 1980, p. 37.
- 1 2 "Ann Howard". operascotland.org. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
- ↑ Goodwin, Noël (2002). "Howard, Ann [Giles, Ann Pauline]". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O003639.(subscription required)
- ↑ Wearing 2014, p. 428.
Bibliography
- Baddeley, Geoffrey E. (1980). The Geoids: Fifty Years of Entertainment by the Geoids Amateur Operatic Society. Geoids Amateur Operatic Society. p. 37.
- Kutsch, K. J.; Riemens, Leo (2003). "Howard, Ann". In Rost, Hansjörg (ed.). Grosses Sängerlexikon. K. G. Saur Verlag. pp. 2150–2151. ISBN 9783598440885.
- Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780810893085.