Helen Watts (7 December 19277 October 2009) was a Welsh

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

Early life

Helen Josephine Watts was born in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Her father was a pharmacist, Tom Watts and moved to live above his shop at 26 Market Street,

Haverfordwest Haverfordwest (, ; cy, Hwlffordd ) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire with a population of 14,596 in 2011. It is also a community, being the second most populous community in the county, ...

, Wales as a child. She was educated at Taskers School for Girls in Haverfordwest, the

Abbots Bromley School for Girls Abbots Bromley School (previously the School of S. Mary and S. Anne, Abbots Bromley before becoming Abbots Bromley School for Girls) was a coeducational boarding and day independent school in the village of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, Engla ...

and at the Royal Academy of Music where she was taught voice by

Caroline Hatchard Caroline Gertrude Hatchard (12 October 1883 – 7 January 1970) was a British soprano, musical theatre and opera singer of the 20th-century who was the first English-born and trained soprano to be engaged by the Royal Opera House in Covent Ga ...

Career

She began her career with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, and was a regular broadcaster on the Welsh Home Service. She subsequently had a distinguished career as an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

singer. She sang Bach arias at her debut at

The 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 ...

, in 1955. She toured the Soviet Union with the

English Opera Group The English Opera Group was a small company of British musicians formed in 1947 by the composer Benjamin Britten (along with John Piper, Eric Crozier and Anne Wood) for the purpose of presenting his and other, primarily British, composers' operat ...

in 1964, singing the lead in ''

The Rape of Lucretia ''The Rape of Lucretia'' (Op. 37) is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, written for Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the title role. Ronald Duncan based his English libretto on André Obey's play '. Performance history The opera was fi ...

''.Patrick O'Connor
"Helen Watts Obituary"
''The Guardian'' (15 October 2009). She was also known for her 1969 performances as Mistress Quickly in Verdi's ''

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

'' with the

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

. In 1969, her voice was described by a critic as "not particularly large, but the general purity and warmth of its tone gives it a direct, communicative power. And the singer uses it with taste and imagination." The many recordings by Helen Watts included a "monumental" edition of forty Bach cantatas, with

Helmuth Rilling Helmuth Rilling (born 29 May 1933) is a German choral conductor and an academic teacher. He is the founder of the Gächinger Kantorei (1954), the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart (1965), the Oregon Bach Festival (1970), the Internationale Bachakademie ...

conducting the

Bach-Collegium Stuttgart Bach-Collegium Stuttgart is an internationally known German instrumental ensemble, founded by Helmuth Rilling in 1965 to accompany the Gächinger Kantorei in choral music with orchestra. Its members are mostly orchestra musicians from Germany and ...

. She also made several recordings as a soloist in Handel's ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

'', various roles in Wagner's Ring cycle, and an album of Welsh songs with the

Treorchy Treorchy ( cy, Treorci; ) is a town and community (and electoral ward) in Wales. Once a mining town, it retains such characteristics. Situated in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf in the Rhondda Fawr valley. Treorchy is also one of the 16 ...

male voice choir. She was asked to choose her favourite record, book, and luxury as a guest on BBC Radio 4's

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

in 1970. They were: * favourite track: Betrachte Meine Seele, from the St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach; book: Illustrated book on gardening; luxury: Velasquez, The Maids of Honour, (

Las Meninas ''Las Meninas'' (; ) is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. It has become one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting, due to the way its complex an ...

) in the Prado. In 1978 she was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE).

Personal life

Helen Watts married Michael Mitchell, a viola player with the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...

, in 1980. Mitchell died in 2007. Watts died on 7 October 2009 at the age of 81.Profile
gramophone.co.uk; accessed 12 April 2014.

References

Literature

* D. Brook, ''Singers of Today'' (Revised Edition - Rockliff, London 1958), pp. 198–200.

External links

bach-cantatas.com; accessed 12 April 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Helen 1927 births 2009 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Welsh contraltos 20th-century Welsh women opera singers Operatic contraltos People from Milford Haven People educated at Abbots Bromley School for Girls Place of birth missing