Gwyneth Jones (soprano)
Dame Gwyneth Jones (born November 7, 1936 in Pontnewynydd, Wales) is a Welsh soprano opera singer.
Dame Gwyneth studied music at the Royal College of Music, London, the Accademia Chigiana Siena as well as the International Opera Studio in Zurich. After making her professional debut in 1962 as a mezzo-soprano in Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice, she was then engaged by the Zurich Opera House. She soon discovered that her easy top range could enable her to sing soprano roles and she thereby switched decisively to the soprano repertoire from around 1964, her first major soprano role being that of Amelia in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.
Dame Gwyneth achieved over-night fame when she stood in for Leontyne Price as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Her career then went from strength to strength, and she met with success as Aida, Leonore (in Fidelio), Desdemona (in Otello), Elisabeth (in Don Carlos), Donna Anna (in Don Giovanni), Cio-Cio San (in Madama Butterfly), Lady Macbeth (in Verdi's Macbeth), Santuzza (in Cavalleria rusticana), Octavian (in Der Rosenkavalier), Medea and Tosca. From these, she gradually proceeded to heavier roles like Minnie (in La Fanciulla del West), Chrysothemis (in Elektra), Salome, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier), Eva (in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg), Senta (in Der fliegende Holländer), Kundry (in Parsifal), both Venus and Elisabeth (in Tannhäuser), Helena (in Strauss's Die Ägyptische Helena), Ariadne (in Ariadne auf Naxos) and Sieglinde (in Die Walkure). Her full dramatic soprano, extraordinary vocal stamina, handsome stage presence and excellent acting abilities are much admired and treasured by both opera lovers and opera houses. One of her greatest achievements was her magnificent interpretation of Brunnhilde in the Bayreuth centennial production of Der Ring des Nibelungen under Pierre Boulez and directed by Patrice Chéreau, a performance preserved on both video and audio discs. The recording won a Grammy in 1983.
Later on, she was phenomenally successful in the title role of Elektra as well as Isolde (in Tristan und Isolde), the Dyer's Wife (in Die Frau ohne Schatten) and Turandot. While best known for her work in the Wagner-Strauss-Puccini repertoire, Dame Gwyneth's remarkable versatility has also enabled her to take on roles that are not commonly regarded as belonging to her Fach - Poppea (in L'incoronazione di Poppea), Hanna Glawari (in Die Lustige Witwe) and even Norma. In more recent years, she undertook a variety of roles including Widow Begbick (Mahagonny/Weill), Ortrud (in Lohengrin), the Woman in Schönberg's Erwartung, the Kostelnicka (in Jenufa), the Kabanicha (in Katya Kabanova), the Woman in Poulenc's La Voix Humaine, Ruth (in The Pirates of Penzance), Gertrude (in Hansel und Gretel), Herodias (in Salome) and Klytemnestra (in Elektra).
Very few singers in the history of western classical singing have successfully mastered all of the 5 roles that are generally considered to be at the apex of the heavy dramatic soprano (or hochdramatischer sopran) repertoire, namely, Brunnhilde, Isolde, Elektra, the Dyer's Wife and Turandot. Dame Gwyneth has made them part of her core repertoire and has performed them in the most prestigious of opera houses. She is widely considered as being one of the greatest dramatic sopranos of the 20th Century.
She has been in demand in opera houses all over the world and has graced the stages of London, Vienna, Munich. Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Paris, Athens, Milan, Florence, Barcelona, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Los Angelos, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Peking, Hong Kong, Seoul and the Festivals Bayreuth, Salzburg, Verona, Orange and Edinburgh etc., collaborating with eminent conductors and directors including Abbado, Barbirolli, Bernstein, Böhm, Boulez, Davis, Guilini, Haitink, Kempe, Kleiber, Krips, Kubelik, Leinsdorf, Levine, Maazel, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Sawallisch, Solti, Thielemann, von Dohnanyi, Chèreau, Everding, Friedrich, Hartmann, Kupfer, Ponnelle, Rennert, Ronconi, Schenk, Serban, Visconti, Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner and Zefirelli. She has also performed in concerts and lieder recitals, TV and radio broadcasts as well as several film projects, including the epic television series, Wagner, in which she plays the first Isolde, Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld. A considerable number of her roles have been documented on records and videos. Interestingly, she has also devised for herself a couple of one-woman music-theatrical shows - O, Malvina! and Die Frau im Schatten - which are inspired by real historical characters, Malvina Schnorr von Carolsfeld (the first Isolde) and Pauline de Ahna (wife of Richard Strauss).
In 2003 she made her debut as director and costume designer in a stage production of Der fliegende Holländer in Weimar, Germany. She has also given master-classes for aspiring singers in different cities and acted as an adjudicator in many international vocal competitions. Despite her advancing years as well as the stupendous vocal demands of her chosen repertoire, she remains to this day an active performer on the stage, taking on various soprano, mezzo-soprano and even contralto roles with considerable vocal authority and dramatic conviction.
She was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) in 1976 and became a Dame of the British Empire in 1986. She is also the recipient of numerous musical/cultural awards and honours from many different countries and organisations, including the Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Golden Medal of Honour in Vienna, the Austrian Cross of Honour First Class, the Shakespeare Prize and the Puccini Award. She is a Kammersangerin at both the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera and she has been made a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.
She is currently the President of the Wagner Society of Great Britain.
Dame Gwyneth is married to the Swiss industrialist Till Haberfeld, and the couple have a daughter, Susannah Haberfeld, who is a mezzo-soprano.
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Gwyneth Jones trained at the young singers school at the Zürich Opera. She was one of the first graduates to achieve fame in opera. She refused to color her hair when she turned gray. She believed in appearing in public "au naturel".