Obituary: Elizabeth Connell, prolific opera singer who gave some memorable performance with Scottish orchestras

Published on Thursday 23 February 2012 02:19

Born: 22 October, 1946, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Died: 18 February, 2012 in Kew, London, aged 65.

Elizabeth Connell was one of the few singers who successfully changed from singing mezzo roles to a full-blown Wagnerian soprano. Her vocal stamina when singing some of the most challenging roles in opera reflected the care she took in preserving her voice. This allowed her to undertake strident heroines from both Verdi (Lady Macbeth) and Wagner (Isolde) to Richard Strauss (Elektra) and Janacek (Kostelnicka).

Connell came to Scotland all too rarely but gave memorable performances with both Scottish Opera and the Scottish National Orchestra and in the Edinburgh Festival. In 2010 Connell gave a delightful masterclass at the Ayrshire Arts Network for six young singers, two of whom she coached further in London.

Elizabeth Connell was the daughter of a Yorkshire Catholic and displayed a keen interest in music in her youth. She was an excellent pianist but at 19 she sang with Joan Sutherland in The Tales of Hoffmann while visiting Australia. She studied music and singing back in South Africa. She then won a scholarship, in 1970, to study at the London Opera Centre.

After making her debut as Varvara in Janácek’s Kátya Kabanová at the Wexford Festival she joined the newly formed Australian Opera in 1975 and sang in the inaugural production (Prokofiev’s War and Peace) at the Sydney Opera House. She also made her official UK debut in that role later that year with the English National Opera. The following summer Connell made her Royal Opera debut in Verdi’s I Lombardi.

It was with ENO that Connell was to sing often in the late 1970s. She sang many of the most demanding mezzo roles (Eboli in Don Carlos, Azucena in Il Trovatore) with tremendous flair and a keen sense of drama. Connell was becoming recognised on the international circuit, making memorable appearances at the Bayreuth Festivals of 1980-82 in Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde.

She then withdrew from performing for a year and retrained her voice while learning a completely new repertory. Connell immediately assumed some of the most demanding soprano roles: Fiordiligi (in Così fan Tutte) at La Scala, Milan; Elettra (Idomeneo) at Salzburg and Norma in Geneva. The Metropolitan New York booked her as did Covent Garden for a prestigious revival in 1985 of Il Trovatore with José Carreras.

Connell had made her first visit to Scotland in 1976 singing the arduous role of Kostelnicka in David Pountney’s gripping production of Jenufa with Scottish Opera. A decade later Connell made a dramatic debut at the Edinburgh International Festival in Frank Dunlop’s invigorating production of Oberon in the Usher Hall. The opera was mounted to celebrate Anton Weber’s bicentenary and was conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

The adventurous production was voted a huge hit and Connell, in striking white robes, was acclaimed for her commitment to the production – which included athletic dashes up and down a specially built staircase.

Connell appeared on several occasions with the SNO but one, in 1994, included the Immolation Scene from Gotterdammerung is fondly remembered.

In 2010 Connell gave a three hour master class at the Ayrshire Arts Network.

She took great care to advise and help six students from the opera school of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance on the technicalities of singing.

Mike Bailey who was present at the event, recalls it as an exceptional evening: “Liza conducted the masterclass with considerable humour and she coached the singers in Italian and German arias. At one point to demonstrate the importance of breath control, Liza thrilled the audience with the opening of In questa reggia from Puccini’s Turandot. It was a wonderful evening.”

In fact it was that taxing role that brought Connell back to prominence in Britain. She was in London in 2008 to sing at the Royal Opera in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, conducted by a long-standing colleague Sir Colin Davis. Another soprano fell ill who was singing the title role in Turandot and Connell stepped in at very short notice, and, according to one critic “pulled off something of a triumph”.

Connell’s extensive recordings included Guillaume Tell under Riccardo Chailly, Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with Klaus Tennstedt, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder, several discs of Wagner highlights and Schubert Lieder.

An emotional engagement was a return to South Africa to sing Beethoven’s Fidelio to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid in the presence of Nelson Mandela at Robben Island.

She was a kind-hearted and generous artist much respected by colleagues for her generous nature and patience throughout a rehearsal period.

She never behaved like a diva, was a keen cook and gardener and coped with the onslaught of cancer calmly and courageously.

Her marriage to the baritone Robert Eddie was dissolved; there were no children.

Alasdair Steven