Janet Baker

Dame Janet Baker (born August 21, 1933) is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer. She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten. During her career, which spanned from the 1950s to the 1980s, she was considered an outstanding singing actress and widely admired for her dramatic intensity, perhaps best represented in her famous portrayal as Dido, the tragic heroine of Hector Berlioz's magnum opus 'Les Troyens'. As a concert performer, Baker was noted for her interpretations of Gustav Mahler and Edgar Elgar.

Early life:
Baker was born in Hatfield, South Yorkshire. Her father was an engineer who sang in a male voice choir. Her brother Peter died when she was ten. She attended York College for Girls and then Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Grimsby. In her early years she worked in a bank, transferring to London in 1953 where she trained with Meriel St Clair and Helene Isepp.

Debut:
In 1956, she made her stage debut with the Oxford University Opera Club as Miss RЈza in Smetana's The Secret. That year, she also made her debut at Glyndebourne. In 1959, she sang Eduige in the Handel Opera Society's Rodelinda; other Handel roles included Ariodante (1964), of which she later made an outstanding recording with Raymond Leppard, and Orlando (1966), which she sang at the Barber Institute, Birmingham.

Opera:
With the English Opera Group at Aldeburgh, Baker sang Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962, Polly (Benjamin Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera) and Lucretia (in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia). At Glyndebourne she appeared again as Dido (1966) and as Diana/Jupiter in Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto, and Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. For Scottish Opera she sang Dorabella in Mozart's Cosњ fan tutte, Dido, Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice.

In 1966, Baker made her debut as Hermia at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and went on to sing Berlioz's Dido, Kate in Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's Vitellia and Idamantes, Cressida in William Walton's Troilus and Cressida and the title role in Gluck's Alceste (1981) there. For the English National Opera, she sang Poppaea, Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, and the title roles in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Oratorio:
During this same period she made an equally strong impact on audiences in the concert hall, both in oratorio roles and solo recitals. Among her most notable achievements are her recordings of the Angel in Sir Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, made with Sir John Barbirolli in December 1964 and Sir Simon Rattle over twenty years later; her performance of Elgar's Sea Pictures, also recorded with Barbirolli, and the world-premiere recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Christmas oratorio Hodie, made in 1965 with Sir David Willcocks. In 1975, she premiered Dominick Argento's Pulitzer Prize-winning song cycle, "From the Diary of Virginia Woolf," written for her by the composer. She has also been highly praised for her insightful performances of the Alto Rhapsody and many lieder by Brahms and Schubert.

Retirement:
Dame Janet Baker's final operatic appearance was as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, on 17 July 1982, at Glyndebourne. She published a memoir, Full Circle, in 1982. In 1991, Baker was elected Chancellor of the University of York. She held the position until 2004, when she was succeeded by Greg Dyke.

Honours and awards:
Baker was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1976 and a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993. She received the L™onie Sonning Music Prize of Denmark in 1979. In 2008, she received the Distinguished Musician Award from the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

Private life:
She married (James) Keith Shelley in 1957 in Harrow. Since retiring from public life, she has become something of a recluse, having nothing to do with anyone except close friends.

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