Barbara Joyce Robotham (15 January 1936 – 1 July 2013) was an English

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

opera singer and concert soloist who later became a distinguished voice teacher at the

Royal Northern College of Music The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) is a conservatoire located in Manchester, England. It is one of four conservatoires associated with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. In addition to being a centre of music education ...

Life and career

The daughter of a

Fylde Coast The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to ...

heating engineer, Robotham was born and raised in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

where she was educated at the Collegiate School for Girls. She then studied singing at the

Royal Manchester College of Music The Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM) was a tertiary level conservatoire in Manchester, north-west England. It was founded in 1893 by the German-born conductor Sir Charles Hallé in 1893. In 1972, the Royal Manchester College of Music a ...

under Elsie Thurston. She won the college's Curtis Gold Medal and the Imperial League of Opera Prize and in 1961 the Silver Medal at the Concours de Genève. Her early performances included Handel's ''

Alcina ''Alcina'' ( HWV 34) is a 1735 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. P ...

'' in Lisbon, Brahms' ''Rhapsodie'' conducted by Malcolm Sargent at the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named 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 Hal ...

, Britten's '' Abraham and Isaac'' at Aldeburgh, the

Verdi Requiem The ''Messa da Requiem'' is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass ( Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi admired. The first performance, at ...

, and the Angel in Elgar's ''

The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...

''.''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' (28 August 2013)
"Barbara Robotham: Barbara Robotham, who has died aged 77, abandoned her own highly successful career as a mezzo-soprano to become a singing teacher of genius"
Retrieved 17 March 2015. In the early 1970s, after her election as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Manchester College of Music and having sung in over 100 performances and broadcasts in the UK and Europe, Robotham turned to teaching which she considered her true vocation. In 1974 she became a voice professor at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

, and in 1979 she joined the faculty of the

. Amongst her students there were

Amanda Roocroft Amanda Jane Roocroft (born 9 February 1966) is an English operatic soprano, who in the course of her career has sung leading roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America. She is also a voice professor at London's Royal College of Music ...

and

Sara Fulgoni Sara Fulgoni is a British mezzo-soprano. She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music where she studied under Barbara Robotham. Kennedy, Michael (October 2013)"Obituary: Barbara Robotham" ''Opera''. Retrieved 16 March 2015. She made h ...

. She retired from full-time teaching at the RNCM in 1999, but continued to give master-classes at the college up until her final illness. Robotham was a long-time resident of

Lytham St. Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous with ...

where she was the President of the Lytham St Annes Choral Society from 1989 until her death. Her last professional performance was as the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem which she performed with the society in 1997 at

Blackpool Grand Theatre Blackpool Grand Theatre is a theatre in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Since 2006, it has also been known as the National Theatre of Variety. It is a Grade II* Listed Building. History The Grand was designed by Victorian theatre architect Fr ...

. She died in

Blackpool Victoria Hospital Blackpool Victoria Hospital, known locally as The Vic, is the main hospital for Blackpool and the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England. It is managed by the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was originally ...

at the age of 77 survived by her husband Eric Waite whom she had married in 1958 and their son Jonathan Waite.Lytham St Annes Choral Society
"Barbara Robotham 1936 – 2013"
. Retrieved 16 March 2015.

Recordings

*''

William Walton Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...

: Orb & sceptre, Te Deum, Crown Imperial'' – Barbara Robotham (mezzo-soprano); Anthony Rolfe Johnson, (tenor); Brian Rayner Cook, (baritone); City of Birmington Symphony Orchestra and Chorus;

Louis Frémaux Louis Joseph Félix Frémaux (13 August 1921 – 20 March 2017) was a French conductor. Life and career Frémaux was born in Aire-sur-la-Lys, France and came from an artistic background; his father was a painter, and his wife was a music teac ...

(conductor). Recorded in 1977. Label:

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

*''

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

: Les Noces, Mass, Cantata'' – The third item on this album, Stravinsky's

Cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

set to medieval English texts is performed by Barbara Robotham (mezzo-soprano); Gerald English (tenor); Prague Philharmonic Chorus; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra;

Karel Ančerl Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers. Ančerl was born into a prosper ...

(conductor. Recorded in 1967. Label:

Supraphon Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, oriented mainly towards publishing classical music and popular music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers. History The Supraphon name was first registered as a trademark in 1932. T ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robotham, Barbara 1936 births 2013 deaths Operatic mezzo-sopranos Voice teachers People from Blackpool People educated at Blackpool Collegiate School for Girls Academics of the Royal Northern College of Music Alumni of the Royal Manchester College of Music 20th-century British women opera singers Women music educators Musicians from Lancashire