Hilary Summers is a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 contralto

Contralto

Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...

. She was trained at Reading University, the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

, and the National Opera Studio

National Opera Studio

The National Opera Studio in London, England was established by the Arts Council as a link between the music colleges and the six main UK opera companies. It was resident at Morley College in Lambeth until 2003, when it gained use for the first time of its own dedicated premises in Chapel Yard,...

 in London. She has performed on soundtracks such as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Libertine

The Libertine (2005 film)

The Libertine is a 2004 film starring Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Samantha Morton and Rosamund Pike. Directed by Laurence Dunmore in his first outing and adapted by Stephen Jeffreys' from his play of the same name, the film stars Johnny Depp as John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, a notorious rake...

, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...

. She has created roles for composers Peter Eötvös

Peter Eötvös

Péter Eötvös is a Hungarian composer and conductor.Eötvös was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely, Szeklerland, Transylvania . He studied composition in Budapest and Cologne. From 1962, he composed for film in Hungary. Eötvös played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and...

 and Elliot Carter, and is known to have a close working relationship with Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman

Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...

. She created the leading role of the Art Banker in Nyman's opera, Facing Goya

Facing Goya

Facing Goya is an opera in four acts by Michael Nyman on a libretto by Victoria Hardie. It is an expansion of their one-act opera called Vital Statistics from 1987, dealing with such subjects as physiognomy and its practitioners, and also incorporates a musical motif from Nyman's art song, "The...

. Her discography includes, for Chandos, Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

's Partenope

Partenope

Partenope is an opera by George Frideric Handel, first performed at the King's Theatre in London on 24 February 1730.-Background:...

and Semele

Semele

Semele , in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths. In another version of his mythic origin, he is the son of Persephone...

.

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