Ann Howard

Ann Howard (born Ann Pauline Swadling, 22 July 1934 – 26 March 2014) was an English mezzo-soprano and actress who had an international performance career in operas, musicals, and concerts that spanned five decades. She began performing on the stage as an amateur in the late 1940s, and made her professional debut in London's West End in the 1956 musical Wild Grows the Heather. She spent the next four years performing as principal boy in British pantomime before joining the chorus of the Royal Opera House (ROH) in 1959. After studying opera on a scholarship in France, she returned to the ROH as principal singer in small to mid-sized roles from 1963 to 1965.

Howard's first large role in an opera was as Azucena in Il trovatore at the Welsh National Opera (WNO) in 1964. That same year she joined the Sadler's Wells Opera (later re-named the English National Opera) with whom she performed regularly into the 1990s in a wide range of parts from leading ladies to character roles; among them Delilah in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah, the Witch in Engelbert Humperdinc's Hansel and Gretel, Fricka in Wagner's Ring Cycle, Lilli Vanessi / Katharine in Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me, Kate, the Composer in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville to name just a few. In 1970 she had a major success at Sadler's Wells in the title role of Bizet's Carmen, and she subsequently sang this role repeatedly at theaters around the world over the next 14 years.

In her later career, Howard performed in many contemporary operas. She also sang in several world premieres, and starred as Cinderella's Step Mother in the 1990 West End production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Her final performance was as Auntie in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes at the WNO in 1999; a role she had sung earlier at the English National Opera in 1991 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 1995. Music critic Noël Goodwin wrote that Howard's "vivid stage personality, strong in comedy or in sinister character, is combined with clear articulation and a full and flexible voice over a wide compass." Her father was an engineer. She left school aged 15 and went to work as an assistant in the jewelry shop Finnigans of Bond Street, later moving to Garrard & Co, jewellers, which had its own operatic group. In her spare time she took singing lessons; studying with Topliss Green in London from 1956 to 1962 and Rodolpha Lhombino from 1962 to 1963. 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. Queen of Hearts in Leeds, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Liverpool. the Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi's Macbeth (1964) with Cornell MacNeil in the title role; and Waltraute in Wagner's Die Walküre (1965) with conductor Georg Solti.

Leading mezz-soprano Sadler's Wells Opera / English National Opera Howard had a lengthy career on the opera stage that encompassed both leading female characters and character roles of the "witches and bitches" variety. She had previously made her debut with the Sadler's Wells Opera (SWO) in the supporting role of Czipra in The Gypsy Baron at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in June 1964;

Howard was a regular performer with the SWO for many years, and continued to perform with the company long after it became the English National Opera (ENO) in 1974. a role she repeated when it was revived at the London Coliseum in 1973. Some of her other early parts with this company included the Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (1964 role debut), the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe (1965), Delilah in Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah (1966 role debut), Musetta in Puccini's La bohème (1966), Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1967, role debut), Concepción in Ravel's L'heure espagnole (1967), Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex (1967), the Composer in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (1968), Boulotte in Offenbach's Bluebeard (1969), Proserpina in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1969), Fricka in Wagner's Ring Cycle (beginning in 1970, led by Reginald Goodall), Lilli Vanessi / Katharine in Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me, Kate (1970), Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin (1971, role debut), and the First Norn in Götterdämmerung (1972).

In 1974 Howard portrayed Alice in SWO's production of Alexander Goehr's Arden Must Die for the work's UK premiere. When she reprised the role of Humperdinck's witch at the ENO in the 1970s with conductor Mario Bernardi she recorded the part for a record released by HMV in 1976. Ten years later she recorded the role of another witch with the ENO, Ježibaba, in Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka (1986, with conductor Mark Elder and Eilene Hannan in the title role). Howard was still playing Humperdinck's witch at the ENO as late as 1980 with Kate Flowers as Gretel and Fiona Kimm as Hansel. Other parts she sang with ENO included the Secretary of the Consulate in Menotti's The Consul (1978) Babulenka in Prokofiev's The Gambler (1983), Kabanicha in Janáček’s Katya Kabanova (1985), and Verdi's Azucena (1986) with Jane Eaglen as Leonora.

In 1982 Howard performed the role of Mescalina in the UK premiere of György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre with the ENO. In 1986 she portrayed Katisha in ENO's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado which was staged by Jonathan Miller and co-starred Monty Python comedian Eric Idle as Ko-Ko. She was still in the role when Bill Oddie assumed the role of Ko-Ko in 1988, followed by Richard Suart in 1991. In 1989 she portrayed Mrs Elsie Worthing in the world premiere of David Blake's The Plumber’s Gift with ENO. and that same year performed Prince Orlofsky in a new staging of Die Fledermaus by Richard Jones.

Carmen In 1970 Howard portrayed the title role in Georges Bizet's Carmen for the first time at the SWO; a successful production which led to her American debut in this same part at the New Orleans Opera in 1971 with Plácido Domingo as Don José. The SWO production was staged by John Copley. San Diego Opera (1973), Phoenix Symphony (1973), Edmonton Opera (1974), Shreveport Opera (1976), Fort Worth Opera (1976), Dayton Opera (1979), the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco (1978), the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (1979, and on tour to Place des Arts in Montreal), Toledo Opera (1979 & 1983), and Calgary Opera (1981) among others. She gave her last performances as Carmen in 1984. She later returned there as Cassandre in Berlioz's Les Troyens (1969), Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1973), Venere in Cavalli's L'Orione (1984), and Marcellina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. In 1973 she returned to the Royal Opera House as Amneris in Aida. She sang Delilah to Gilbert Py's Samson at Opera North (ON) in 1982, and the following year returned to ON as Mrs Danvers in the world premiere of Wilfred Josephs's Rebecca. In 1969 she sang the role of the Mother in a concert version of Stravinsky's Mavra at Royal Albert Hall with Sir Colin Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. That same year a studio recording of the musical The Arcadians in which she was a principal singer was released by EMI Records. She made several filmed operas for BBC Two television broadcast with Raymond Leppard and the New Philharmonia Orchestra; including the parts of Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus (1971) and Flora in La traviata (1973) with Joan Cross as Violetta.

On the international stage, Howard performed in theaters across Europe, North America, Mexico and South Africa. Fort Worth Opera (1976), the Canadian Opera Company (1976), and the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux (1978). In 1977 she portrayed Isabella in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri with the Baltimore Opera Company. Some of the other parts she performed on the international stage included Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos

In 1974 Howard gave her first performance at the Santa Fe Opera (SFO) as Offenbach's Grande Duchesse; a role she repeated there in 1979. Her final role with the SFO was Caliban in the world premiere of John Eaton's The Tempest (1985). and at the Municipal Theatre of Santiago (1984). In 1982 she portrayed the title role in Massenet's Hérodiade at the Opéra de Saint-Étienne.

In 1990 Howard starred in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Mrs. Cripps (Little Buttercup) in H.M.S. Pinafore (1994), Lady Sangazure in The Sorcerer (1995), and the Queen of the Fairies in Iolanthe (1996).

In 1995 Howard gave her first performance at the Metropolitan Opera as Auntie in Peter Grimes; performed the role of the Old Nun in a concert version of Hindemith's Sancta Susanna at the BBC Proms; and portrayed Emma Jones in Kurt Weill's Street Scene at the Teatro Regio, Turin. In 1996 she portrayed the 2nd Official in the world premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies's The Doctor of Myddfai with WNO; a production which was recorded on disc. Her final appearance was as Britten's Auntie with the WNO in 1999; a production in which she toured.

Retirement and later life She retired from the stage in 1999, but continued to teach young singers.

Howard died aged 79 at home in Surbiton, Surrey, on 26 March 2014 as a result of a pulmonary embolism and deep-vein thrombosis.