Valerie Masterson
Encyclopedia
Margaret Valerie Masterson (born 3 June 1937), is a retired English
opera
singer, a lecturer and Vice-President of British Youth Opera
. After study in Italy, she began to sing opera in Europe. Returning to England, Masterson performed as principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
from 1964 to 1969, becoming popular with audiences and participating in several of the company's recordings, as well as those of Gilbert and Sullivan for All
and the BBC
.
She next joined English National Opera
and went on to an international opera career lasting more than three decades. Although she performed a wide variety of roles, she was best known for her roles in the French repertoire
and the works of Handel
, as well as Gilbert and Sullivan
. Her recordings include, in addition to many opera roles, operettas and musical theatre
. She has been awarded a CBE
and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music
.
, Cheshire
, England, and studied at the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool
and the Royal College of Music. She received good reviews for her student performances. The Times
commented on her "welcome freshness", though on another occasion it found fault with her attempt at a Scottish accent in a Robert Burns
evening at the Wigmore Hall
, calling it "more of Kensington than Kilmarnock". Nevertheless, the paper judged her "good to listen to" and "intelligent".
She studied for a year in Milan
with the soprano
Adelaide Saraceni, but her most important teacher was the tenor
Eduardo Asquez. She made her debut as Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen
in Salzburg
with the Landestheatre Opera Company, where she spent a season in 1963 singing roles in Italian, French and German operas. The following year, she returned to England, performing in concerts, including two Promenade Concerts
with Sir Malcolm Sargent
. She later recalled, "I remember Sir Malcolm Sargent plucking me out of the Royal College of Music to do some Proms as a student – can you imagine that happening nowadays? – and saying to me 'Your quiet singing will make your fortune'". The music critics commended "a team of soloists led by a newcomer, Miss Valerie Masterson, with particularly pure and radiant soprano tone" in the Serenade to Music
.
Masterson joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
as a principal soprano in 1964. After a performance as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance
, The Guardian
commented, "It is Valerie Masterson's Mabel that makes one revise ideas on D'Oyly Carte standards. It is a long time since the company had so strong a soprano lead." Other critics agreed: The Times criticised D'Oyly Carte vocal standards in 1968 but called Masterson and Kenneth Sandford
"shining exceptions." She remained with D'Oyly Carte for five years, where her major roles were Mabel; Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore
; Phyllis in Iolanthe
; Lady Psyche, and subsequently the title role, in Princess Ida
; Yum-Yum in The Mikado
; Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard
; and Casilda in The Gondoliers
. She appeared in the company's film version of The Mikado as Yum-Yum in 1967. She left the company in 1969 but often returned for guest appearances.
, from 1971, singing a wide range of roles from Mozart
to Wagner
and Rossini to Puccini
. Her successes there included Adéle in Rossini's Le comte Ory
, Violetta in La traviata
and the title role in Massenet
's Manon
("exquisitely sung and acted"). She made her French debut at Toulouse in 1975 as Manon, and then for three seasons beginning in 1975, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
, she sang a variety of roles, including "a memorable Matilde in Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
". She also sang in Strasbourg (Pamina), Rouen (Countess, Marriage of Figaro), and returned to Toulouse (Violetta).
There followed starring roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
, and, over a career lasting more than 30 years, in major opera houses around the world. Her repertory extended from the earliest operas to late 20th century works. For the Paris Opera
she sang Drusilla in Monteverdi
's 1642 work, The Coronation of Poppea
. At Covent Garden she created the role of May in Hans Werner Henze
's 1976 premiere of We Come to the River
, and sang The Anne who Steals in Aulis Sallinen
's 1984 opera The King Goes Forth to France
, at the UK premiere on 1 April 1987.
Her many other roles included Gilda in Rigoletto
, Pamina in The Magic Flute
, Susanna and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro
, Constanza in The Seraglio
, Sophie and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
, Mimì in La bohème
, Micaëla in Carmen
, Adèle in Le comte Ory, Woglinde and the Woodbird in the Ring
and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites
, of which The Times wrote that Masterson "makes a sound so beautiful one wishes it could go on for ever.... Life offers few pleasures like that of hearing Felicity Lott
and Valerie Masterson singing on the same stage". She has also sung roles in Così fan tutte
, Don Giovanni
, Idomeneo
, The Merry Widow
and Lucia di Lammermoor
, among others. She appeared at the Prague National Theatre
as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro. She performed for two seasons at Geneva
, as Gilda in 1981 and Mireille later that year. Masterson (singing Gilda) was a member of the English National Opera company that toured five cities in the U.S. in May and June 1984.
Masterson played a significant part in the reintroduction of Handel
's operas to the mainstream repertoire. Her purity of line and facility for ornamentation, coupled with excellent diction, helped to bring to life his works which, as recently as the 1960s, were considered unperformable. In 1983, Masterson won a Laurence Olivier Award
for her performance in the title role of Semele at Covent Garden
. Her other Handel roles included Romilda in Xerxes
for ENO, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare
opposite Janet Baker
for ENO and later for Houston Grand Opera
and San Francisco Opera
, Berenice in Scipio
for the Handel Opera Society at Sadler's Wells
, and Morgana in Alcina
at Aix en Provence. On the concert platform she sang the Queen of Sheba in Solomon
.
Some of her greatest successes were in the French repertoire
, in roles including Manon, Marguerite in Gounod
's Faust
, in London and Paris, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
, in London and internationally, Leila in The Pearl Fishers
, and the title role in Louise
. Of her Manon for ENO, The Times
commented, "The Coliseum
has found a worthy successor to Elizabeth Harwood
in the delectable form of Valerie Masterson, who has here her greatest success to date with the company. She looks at once charming, fragile and seductive, and she sings with light insouciance and easy forward tone."
As a home-grown British soprano with a charming personality and attractive appearance, Masterson became popular with wider British audiences through frequent contributions to the popular radio series Friday Night is Music Night
and the TV programme The Good Old Days
. She also participated in television broadcasts of several Gilbert and Sullivan
operas and live relays from English National Opera.
in the Queen
's birthday honours
. She was also made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1992.
Masterson also continues to give master-classes and to lecture about singing and her career. She often speaks at the annual International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
in Buxton
, England, and performed Yum-Yum in The Mikado at that festival in 1997. She is a Patron of the Carl Rosa Opera Company
. An avid sportswoman and cooking enthusiast, she is married to former D'Oyly Carte principal flautist Andrew March.
. On BBC
television, Masterson appeared as Yum-Yum in 1973 and Elsie Maynard in 1975. In 1983, she recorded an album of G&S solos and duets with Robert Tear
. She sang Josephine, Mabel, Ida, Yum-Yum and Elsie in the 1989 BBC2 series of the complete Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In 1997 she recorded excerpts from Ivanhoe
, The Chieftain
, The Beauty Stone
and The Emerald Isle
with the National Symphony Orchestra for the CD "Sullivan & Co. – The Operas that Got Away" Her voice is heard in the Gilbert and Sullivan songs in the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
.
Masterson stars as Violetta on a recording in English of La traviata
conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
. Also with Mackerras, she recorded the role of Cleopatra in Julius Caesar
opposite Janet Baker
's Caesar, and Romilda in audio and DVD recordings of Nicholas Hytner
's ENO production of Serse (given in English as Xerxes). In July 1975, Masterson sang Matilde in a complete recording of Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra alongside Montserrat Caballé
and José Carreras
. She is also featured in live recordings of Faust (in Philadelphia), Mireille
, Scipio, Chérubin
, and the ENO Ring cycle
, conducted by Reginald Goodall
. The 1980 television broadcast from Glyndebourne of Die Entführung aus dem Serail
, with Masterson as Constanze, has been issued on DVD.
A recital disc of her French repertoire, Valerie Masterson – en Français: Airs d’Opéra, was released in 1989. She recorded highlights from Messiah
. Apart from Sullivan, her recordings of English music include Elgar
's music for The Starlight Express
, songs by Thomas Arne and Henry Bishop in a mixed recital disc of 1992, and a disc of English songs with Sarah Walker. Her recordings of lighter works include The King and I
, Kismet
, Bitter Sweet
, Song of Norway
, On the Town, and The Merry Widow
, and a disc of show duets with Thomas Allen. Concert works recorded by Masterson include Mozart's "Great Mass".
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singer, a lecturer and Vice-President of British Youth Opera
British Youth Opera
Since it was founded in 1987, British Youth Opera has enabled over a thousand singers, instrumentalists, conductors, directors and production staff to gain experience through its annual September performances and workshop and masterclass series....
. After study in Italy, she began to sing opera in Europe. Returning to England, Masterson performed as principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
from 1964 to 1969, becoming popular with audiences and participating in several of the company's recordings, as well as those of Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All was a touring concert and opera company, formed in 1963 by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performers Thomas Round and Donald Adams and Norman Meadmore, and which exclusively performed the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, usually in concert, but sometimes giving full...
and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
She next joined English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
and went on to an international opera career lasting more than three decades. Although she performed a wide variety of roles, she was best known for her roles in the French repertoire
French Opera
French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen...
and the works of Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, as well as Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
. Her recordings include, in addition to many opera roles, operettas and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. She has been awarded a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
.
Early career and D'Oyly Carte
Masterson was born in BirkenheadBirkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England, and studied at the Matthay School of Music in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and the Royal College of Music. She received good reviews for her student performances. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
commented on her "welcome freshness", though on another occasion it found fault with her attempt at a Scottish accent in a Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
evening at the Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, calling it "more of Kensington than Kilmarnock". Nevertheless, the paper judged her "good to listen to" and "intelligent".
She studied for a year in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
with the soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Adelaide Saraceni, but her most important teacher was the tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Eduardo Asquez. She made her debut as Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
with the Landestheatre Opera Company, where she spent a season in 1963 singing roles in Italian, French and German operas. The following year, she returned to England, performing in concerts, including two Promenade Concerts
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
with Sir Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
. She later recalled, "I remember Sir Malcolm Sargent plucking me out of the Royal College of Music to do some Proms as a student – can you imagine that happening nowadays? – and saying to me 'Your quiet singing will make your fortune'". The music critics commended "a team of soloists led by a newcomer, Miss Valerie Masterson, with particularly pure and radiant soprano tone" in the Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged...
.
Masterson joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
as a principal soprano in 1964. After a performance as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
commented, "It is Valerie Masterson's Mabel that makes one revise ideas on D'Oyly Carte standards. It is a long time since the company had so strong a soprano lead." Other critics agreed: The Times criticised D'Oyly Carte vocal standards in 1968 but called Masterson and Kenneth Sandford
Kenneth Sandford
Kenneth Sandford was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in baritone roles of the Savoy Operas of Gilbert and Sullivan....
"shining exceptions." She remained with D'Oyly Carte for five years, where her major roles were Mabel; Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
; Phyllis in Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
; Lady Psyche, and subsequently the title role, in Princess Ida
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
; Yum-Yum in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
; Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
; and Casilda in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
. She appeared in the company's film version of The Mikado as Yum-Yum in 1967. She left the company in 1969 but often returned for guest appearances.
Opera career
Masterson went on to become principal soprano with English National OperaEnglish National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
, from 1971, singing a wide range of roles from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
to Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
and Rossini to Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
. Her successes there included Adéle in Rossini's Le comte Ory
Le comte Ory
Le comte Ory is an opéra written by Gioachino Rossini in 1828. Some of the music originates from his opera Il viaggio a Reims written three years earlier for the coronation of Charles X...
, Violetta in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
and the title role in Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
("exquisitely sung and acted"). She made her French debut at Toulouse in 1975 as Manon, and then for three seasons beginning in 1975, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
, she sang a variety of roles, including "a memorable Matilde in Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, is a dramma per musica or opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to a libretto by Giovanni Schmidt, from the play The Page of Leicester by Carlo Federici...
". She also sang in Strasbourg (Pamina), Rouen (Countess, Marriage of Figaro), and returned to Toulouse (Violetta).
There followed starring roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, and, over a career lasting more than 30 years, in major opera houses around the world. Her repertory extended from the earliest operas to late 20th century works. For the Paris Opera
Paris Opera
The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...
she sang Drusilla in Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
's 1642 work, The Coronation of Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
. At Covent Garden she created the role of May in Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
's 1976 premiere of We Come to the River
We Come to the River
We Come to the River is an opera by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by Edward Bond. Henze and Bond described this work as "Actions for music", rather than an opera. It was Henze's 7th opera, written originally for the Royal Opera in London, and takes as its focus the horrors of war...
, and sang The Anne who Steals in Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen
Aulis Sallinen is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. He writes in a modern, though tonal and not experimental music style. He studied at the Sibelius Academy, where his teachers included Joonas Kokkonen...
's 1984 opera The King Goes Forth to France
The King Goes Forth to France
Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan is an opera in three acts by Aulis Sallinen, based on the novel of the same title by Paavo Haavikko, who also wrote the libretto. The English singing version is by Stephen Oliver.-Background:...
, at the UK premiere on 1 April 1987.
Her many other roles included Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Pamina in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Susanna and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Constanza in The Seraglio
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
, Sophie and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, Mimì in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Micaëla in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Adèle in Le comte Ory, Woglinde and the Woodbird in the Ring
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites
Dialogues of the Carmelites
Dialogues of the Carmelites , is an opera in three acts by Francis Poulenc. In 1953, M. Valcarenghi approached Poulenc to commission a ballet for La Scala in Milan; when Poulenc found the proposed subject uninspiring, Valcarenghi suggested instead a screenplay by Georges Bernanos, based on the...
, of which The Times wrote that Masterson "makes a sound so beautiful one wishes it could go on for ever.... Life offers few pleasures like that of hearing Felicity Lott
Felicity Lott
Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, DBE, FRCM is an English soprano.-Education:From her earliest years she was musical, having started studying piano at age 5. She also played violin and began singing lessons at 12. She is an alumna of Royal Holloway, University of London, obtaining a BA in French and...
and Valerie Masterson singing on the same stage". She has also sung roles in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
, The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
and Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, among others. She appeared at the Prague National Theatre
National Theatre (Prague)
The National Theatre in Prague is known as the Alma Mater of Czech opera, and as the national monument of Czech history and art.The National Theatre belongs to the most important Czech cultural institutions, with a rich artistic tradition which was created and maintained by the most distinguished...
as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro. She performed for two seasons at Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, as Gilda in 1981 and Mireille later that year. Masterson (singing Gilda) was a member of the English National Opera company that toured five cities in the U.S. in May and June 1984.
Masterson played a significant part in the reintroduction of Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's operas to the mainstream repertoire. Her purity of line and facility for ornamentation, coupled with excellent diction, helped to bring to life his works which, as recently as the 1960s, were considered unperformable. In 1983, Masterson won a Laurence Olivier Award
Laurence Olivier Awards
The Laurence Olivier Award is presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre. Named after the renowned British actor Laurence Olivier, they are given for West End shows and other productions staged in London...
for her performance in the title role of Semele at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
. Her other Handel roles included Romilda in Xerxes
Serse
Serse is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694...
for ENO, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
opposite Janet Baker
Janet Baker
Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA 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...
for ENO and later for Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
and San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, Berenice in Scipio
Scipione
Scipione is an opera in three acts, with music composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1726. The librettist was Paolo Antonio Rolli. Handel composed Scipione whilst in the middle of writing Alessandro...
for the Handel Opera Society at Sadler's Wells
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
, and Morgana in Alcina
Alcina
Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy...
at Aix en Provence. On the concert platform she sang the Queen of Sheba in Solomon
Solomon (Handel)
Solomon, HWV 67, is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel. Its libretto is based on the biblical stories of wise king Solomon and is attributed to Newburgh Hamilton...
.
Some of her greatest successes were in the French repertoire
French Opera
French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen...
, in roles including Manon, Marguerite in Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, in London and Paris, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
, in London and internationally, Leila in The Pearl Fishers
Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
, and the title role in Louise
Louise (opera)
Louise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
. Of her Manon for ENO, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
commented, "The Coliseum
Coliseum Theatre
The London Coliseum is an opera house and major performing venue on St. Martin's Lane, central London. It is one of London's largest and best equipped theatres and opened in 1904, designed by theatrical architect Frank Matcham , for impresario Oswald Stoll...
has found a worthy successor to Elizabeth Harwood
Elizabeth Harwood
Elizabeth Harwood was an English lyric soprano. After a music school, she enjoyed an operatic career lasting for over two decades and worked with such conductors as Colin Davis and Herbert von Karajan...
in the delectable form of Valerie Masterson, who has here her greatest success to date with the company. She looks at once charming, fragile and seductive, and she sings with light insouciance and easy forward tone."
As a home-grown British soprano with a charming personality and attractive appearance, Masterson became popular with wider British audiences through frequent contributions to the popular radio series Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 8.00pm. It is the world's longest-running live music radio programme....
and the TV programme The Good Old Days
The Good Old Days
The Good Old Days is a popular BBC television light entertainment programme which ran from 1953 to 1983.It was performed at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall with songs and sketches of the era performed by present-day...
. She also participated in television broadcasts of several Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas and live relays from English National Opera.
Honours and retirement
As Vice-President (and former president) of British Youth Opera, Masterson continues to work with young singers. In 1989, Masterson was made a CBEOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in the Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
's birthday honours
British honours system
The British honours system is a means of rewarding individuals' personal bravery, achievement, or service to the United Kingdom and the British Overseas Territories...
. She was also made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1992.
Masterson also continues to give master-classes and to lecture about singing and her career. She often speaks at the annual International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival
The International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival is held every summer at the Opera House in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. The three-week Festival of Gilbert and Sullivan performances and fringe events attracts thousands of visitors, including performers, supporters, and G&S enthusiasts from all...
in Buxton
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...
, England, and performed Yum-Yum in The Mikado at that festival in 1997. She is a Patron of the Carl Rosa Opera Company
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
. An avid sportswoman and cooking enthusiast, she is married to former D'Oyly Carte principal flautist Andrew March.
Recordings
Among Masterson's recordings are a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, The Sorcerer, and a series of Gilbert and Sullivan videos with the company Gilbert and Sullivan for AllGilbert and Sullivan for All
Gilbert and Sullivan for All was a touring concert and opera company, formed in 1963 by D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performers Thomas Round and Donald Adams and Norman Meadmore, and which exclusively performed the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, usually in concert, but sometimes giving full...
. On BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television, Masterson appeared as Yum-Yum in 1973 and Elsie Maynard in 1975. In 1983, she recorded an album of G&S solos and duets with Robert Tear
Robert Tear
Robert Tear, CBE was a Welsh tenor and conductor.Tear was born in Barry, Glamorgan, Wales, UK, the son of Thomas and Edith Tear. He attended Barry Boys' Grammar School and during this period sang in the chorus of the first Welsh National Opera's production of 'Cavalleria Rusticana' in April 1946...
. She sang Josephine, Mabel, Ida, Yum-Yum and Elsie in the 1989 BBC2 series of the complete Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In 1997 she recorded excerpts from Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe (opera)
Ivanhoe is a romantic opera in three acts based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott, with music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Julian Sturgis. It premiered at the Royal English Opera House on 31 January 1891 for a consecutive run of 155 performances, unheard of for a grand opera...
, The Chieftain
The Chieftain
The Chieftain is a two-act comic opera by Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand based on their 1867 opera, The Contrabandista. It consists of substantially the same first act as the 1867 work with a completely new second act...
, The Beauty Stone
The Beauty Stone
The Beauty Stone is an opera, billed as a "romantic musical drama" in three acts, composed by Arthur Sullivan to a libretto by Arthur Wing Pinero and J. Comyns Carr. The medieval Faustian story concerns an ugly, crippled girl, who dreams of being beautiful and meeting a handsome prince. The Devil...
and The Emerald Isle
The Emerald Isle
The Emerald Isle; or, The Caves of Carrig-Cleena, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and Edward German, and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 27 April 1901, closing on 9 November 1901 after a run of 205 performances...
with the National Symphony Orchestra for the CD "Sullivan & Co. – The Operas that Got Away" Her voice is heard in the Gilbert and Sullivan songs in the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (film)
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is a 1992 American thriller about a vengeful nanny out to destroy a naïve woman and steal her family. The film was directed by Curtis Hanson, starring Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, and Matt McCoy...
.
Masterson stars as Violetta on a recording in English of La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
. Also with Mackerras, she recorded the role of Cleopatra in Julius Caesar
Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
opposite Janet Baker
Janet Baker
Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA 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...
's Caesar, and Romilda in audio and DVD recordings of Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
's ENO production of Serse (given in English as Xerxes). In July 1975, Masterson sang Matilde in a complete recording of Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra alongside Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé is a Spanish operatic soprano. Although she sang a wide variety of roles, she is best known as an exponent of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi....
and José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
. She is also featured in live recordings of Faust (in Philadelphia), Mireille
Mireille (opera)
Mireille is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.-Composition history:...
, Scipio, Chérubin
Chérubin
Chérubin is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Francis de Croisset and Henri Cain after de Croisset's play of the same name...
, and the ENO Ring cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
, conducted by Reginald Goodall
Reginald Goodall
Sir Reginald Goodall was an English conductor, noted for his performances of the operas of Richard Wagner and conducting the premieres of several operas by Benjamin Britten.-Biography:...
. The 1980 television broadcast from Glyndebourne of Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
, with Masterson as Constanze, has been issued on DVD.
A recital disc of her French repertoire, Valerie Masterson – en Français: Airs d’Opéra, was released in 1989. She recorded highlights from Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
. Apart from Sullivan, her recordings of English music include Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's music for The Starlight Express
The Starlight Express
"The Starlight Express" is a children's play by Violet Pearn, based on the imaginative novel "A Prisoner in Fairyland" by Algernon Blackwood, with songs and incidental music written by the English composer Sir Edward Elgar in 1915.- Production :...
, songs by Thomas Arne and Henry Bishop in a mixed recital disc of 1992, and a disc of English songs with Sarah Walker. Her recordings of lighter works include The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
, Kismet
Kismet (musical)
Kismet is a musical with lyrics and musical adaptation by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Alexander Borodin, and a book by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, based on Kismet, the 1911 play by Edward Knoblock...
, Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet is an operetta in three acts written by Noël Coward and first produced in 1929 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. It ran for a very successful 967 performances....
, Song of Norway
Song of Norway
Song of Norway is an operetta written in 1944 by Robert Wright and George Forrest, adapted from the music of Edvard Grieg and the book by Milton Lazarus and Homer Curran...
, On the Town, and The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
, and a disc of show duets with Thomas Allen. Concert works recorded by Masterson include Mozart's "Great Mass".