__NOTOC__ Jennifer Johnston is an English operatic

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 ...

. Born in Liverpool, she studied law at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and worked in London chambers as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

before studying opera at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

(RCM). She is universally known as the 'Scouse Diva'. A former BBC New Generation Artist, she made her professional debut as Humperdinck's Hänsel for Scottish Opera, followed by her international debuts at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...

in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and at the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amad ...

as Carmi in an unstaged performance of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

La Betulia Liberata ''La '' (''The Liberation of Bethulia'') is a libretto by Pietro Metastasio which was originally commissioned by Emperor Charles VI and set to music by Georg Reutter the Younger in 1734. It was subsequently set by as many as 30 composers, includ ...

''; a performance which was recorded and released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. She is particularly associated with the Bayerische Staatsoper and its distinguished musical director

Kirill Petrenko Kirill Garrievich Petrenko (russian: Кирилл Гарриевич Петренко, Latin script: ; born 11 February 1972) is a Russian-Austrian conductor. He is chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Early life Petrenko was born in Omsk ...

, where her roles have included Second Norn, Roßweise,

Floßhilde The Rhinemaidens are the three water-nymphs (''Rheintöchter'' or "Rhine daughters") who appear in Richard Wagner's opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. Their individual names are Woglinde, Wellgunde and Flosshilde (Floßhilde), although the ...

, Hedwige and La Ciesca. She has appeared in opera at the

Teatro alla Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

as Mrs Grose in '' The Turn of the Screw'' (Britten) and

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

Giorgio Battistelli Giorgio Battistelli (born 25 April 1953) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale (province of Rome), he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel. Battistel ...

's '' '', and additionally at the Salzburg Festival as Lady de Hautdesert in ''

Gawain Gawain (), also known in many other forms and spellings, is a character in Arthurian legend, in which he is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table. The prototype of Gawain is mentioned under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest ...

'' ( Birtwistle), and as Leda in '' Die Liebe der Danae'' ( Strauss). A prolific concert performer, she has performed with many of the world's greatest orchestras and conductors, including as

Jocaste In Greek mythology, Jocasta (), also rendered Iocaste ( grc, Ἰοκάστη ) and also known as Epicaste (; ), was a daughter of Menoeceus, a descendant of the Spartoi Echion, and queen consort of Thebes. She was the wife of first Laius, th ...

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 20th-century clas ...

's ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'' (Sir John Eliot Gardiner/Berlin Philharmonic & London Symphony Orchestras, released as an LSO Live disc),

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

’s

Missa Solemnis {{Audio, De-Missa solemnis.ogg, Missa solemnis is Latin for Solemn Mass, and is a genre of musical settings of the Mass Ordinary, which are festively scored and render the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. In French ...

(Sir John Eliot Gardiner/Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique at the BBC Proms and on disc), Mahler’s Second Symphony (De la Parra/London Philharmonic Orchestra), Mahler's Third Symphony (Welser-Möst/Cleveland Orchestra, Zinman/Orchestre National de Lyon), Elgar's '' Sea Pictures'' (Tate/Hamburg Symphony Orchestra), 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 ...

'' (Brabbins/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra),

Verdi's 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 ...

(Gardner/Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Slatkin/Orchestra National de Lyon), Schumann’s ''

Das Paradies und die Peri ''Paradise and the Peri'', in German ''Das Paradies und die Peri'', is a secular oratorio for soloists, choir, and orchestra by Robert Schumann. Completed in 1843, the work was published as Schumann's Op. 50. The work is based on a German tran ...

'' (Gatti/Accademia Di Santa Cecilia), Adès's '' Totentanz'' (Adès/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Harding/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra), and Pasqualita in Adams' '' Doctor Atomic'' (Adams/BBC Symphony Orchestra, recorded for Nonesuch). She made her solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall accompanied by Joseph Middleton and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. She is a founder member of The Prince Consort, with whom she has recorded for Linn Records, and has appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw and the Aldeburgh Festival. Her extensive discography includes Anthony Payne's arrangement of Vaughan Williams's Four Last Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins for Albion Records, which she premiered at the BBC Proms (Vänska/BBCSO) and which was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

. Johnston was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2021 Singer Award. On 15 July 2022 she sang in Verdi's "Requiem" for the First Night of the Proms.

References

Citations

Other sources

*Pritchard, Stephen
"Let me count the waves"
"The Observer", April 1, 2007 *Canning, Hugh
"They can’t Handel the challenge"
''The Times'', November 19, 2006

External links

*
Artist page: Jennifer Johnston
on Askonas Holt Management {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Jennifer Living people Alumni of the Royal College of Music English opera singers English operatic mezzo-sopranos Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Cambridge Singers from Liverpool BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists