Elizabeth Connell

Frances Elizabeth Connell (22 October 194618 February 2012) was a South African-born operatic mezzo-soprano, and later soprano, whose career took place mainly in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Connell was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1946, to a Catholic father from South Africa and a Protestant mother from Port Elizabeth, one of five children.

Connell attained an opera scholarship to the London Opera Centre, and came to the UK in 1970. Her teachers there included Otakar Kraus, who told her that 'one day you'll be a dramatic soprano'. In 1972, she was a winner of the Maggie Teyte prize for young musicians, and also made her professional debut at Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland, as she was initially not able to appear in British opera houses,

Her dramatic qualities were praised in her performance (as Senta in The Flying Dutchman) in Tokyo with Seiji Ozawa conducting. Her San Francisco Opera debut was in 1987 and she was frequently invited back.

She sang the role of Brünnhilde in both Die Walküre (Santiago, Chile opera) and Siegfried (Rome Opera). Her repertory included leading roles in the Verdi operas Nabucco, Macbeth, and Oberto. Her performances as Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde included appearances at the Opera Real in Madrid and a concert performance in Carnegie Hall. Other parts she sang were Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes and the Kostelnicka in Janáček's Jenufa.

In 2004, she sang Leonore in a performance of Fidelio by Cape Town Opera staged at Robben Island, 10 years after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison there.

Recordings Her many recordings include Rossini's Guglielmo Tell (Decca, Riccardo Chailly), Mahler's Eighth Symphony (EMI, Klaus Tennstedt), Mendelssohn's Second Symphony (DG, Claudio Abbado), Franz Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Decca, Lothar Zagrosek), Gaetano Donizetti's Poliuto (NuovaEra, Jan Latham-Koenig, Live Opera di Roma), Giuseppe Verdi's I due Foscari (Philips, Lamberto Gardelli), Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder (Denon, Eliahu Inbal), Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (Squires Productions, Eve Queler, Carnegie Hall Live 1997) and Schubert Lieder with Graham Johnson, as part of Hyperion Records Complete Schubert Edition.

In 2008, two important CD releases were added to her discography: Her first operatic recital, singing great scenes by Wagner and Strauss for ABC Classics, conducted by Muhai Tang, and Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, conducted by Richard Hickox. Elizabeth Connell also recorded portions of Sir Granville Bantock's "The Song of Songs" under the baton of Vernon Handley, for Hyperion.

Some of her opera performances recorded for television have also been released on DVD. Lohengrin (1982 Bayreuth Festival, dir Götz Friedrich, EuroArts), Nabucco (1996 Opera Australia/Sydney Opera House, ABC - Opus Arte/Kultur), Hänsel und Gretel (1998, The Royal Opera/Royal Opera House, Opus Arte, DVD/Blu-ray).