Watts, Helen (Josephine)

Watts, Helen (Josephine), admired Welsh contralto; b. Milford Haven, Dec. 7,1927. She was a student of Caroline Hatchard and Frederick Jackson at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She began her career singing in the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and the BBC Chorus in London. Her first appearance as a soloist was in 1953. In 1955 she made her first appearance at the London Promenade Concerts singing Bach arias under Sargent’s direction. Thereafter she distinguished herself as a concert artist, appearing in principal European and North American music centers. She also pursued an operatic career. In 1958 she made her operatic debut as Didymus in Theodora with the Handel Opera Soc. at the Camden Festival, and continued to appear with the Soc. until 1964. In 1964 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as the 1^st Maid in Elektra and toured Russia with the English Opera Group as Britten’s Lucretia. She made her first appearance at London’s Covent Garden as the 1^st Norn in Götterdämmerung in 1965, and continued to sing there until 1971. In 1966 she made her U.S. debut in Delhis’ A Mass of Life in N.Y. She sang Mistress Quickly at her first appearance with the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff in 1969, where she was a leading member of the company until 1983. In 1978 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. While she had success in opera, she particularly excelled as a concert artist. Her concert repertoire extended from Bach to the masters of the 20^th century

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire