Maryetta Midgley (born 27 May 1942) is an English

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

singer. Midgley was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the daughter of operatic tenor

Walter Midgley Walter Midgley (13 September 1912 – 18 September 1980) was an English opera tenor who sang leading roles at the Royal Opera House and elsewhere from the 1930s to the 1950s. Early life Midgley was born in Bramley, near Rotherham. Af ...

and pianist Gladys Vernon. She is the sister of tenor

Vernon Midgley Vernon Midgley (born 28 May 1940) is an English tenor. Life and career Midgley was born in Worcester Park, Surrey. His parents were the tenor Walter Midgley and the pianist Gladys Midgley. His sister is the soprano Maryetta Midgley. He was e ...

. She was educated at the Holy Cross School, New Malden,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England. She won a scholarship to the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

, where she studied singing and the piano. She began her career with the George Mitchell Singers and made her first radio broadcast as a child in '' Round the Horne''. She appeared in the "Fol-De-Rols" at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne and in '' Camelot'' at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. She has broadcast regularly on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

in "Friday Night is Music Night", "Melodies for You", "Among Your Souvenirs", "Saturday Night is Gala Night" and "Robert Farnon's World of Music". With her brother Vernon she appeared frequently on BBC TV's '' The Good Old Days''. She performed in '' Wiener Blut'', '' Show Boat'', '' Les cloches de Corneville'', and ''

La rondine ''La rondine'' (''The Swallow'') is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on a libretto by Alfred Maria Willner and . It was first performed at the Grand Théâtre de Monte Carlo (or the Théâtr ...

'', with

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

in 1981. She founded MVM Records and produced over 15 albums exclusively of the entire family. In a broadcast of "Friday Night is Music Night" in 1976 from Fairfield Halls Croydon, all four Midgleys performed together for the only time. She retired from professional singing in 1992, after 42 years, and runs an unrelated business with her husband Richard.

Discography

* Jerome Kern: ''Show Boat'', conducted by John McGlinn, EMI CDRIVER1, 1988 * ''Melodies, melodies all the way''. Maryetta Midgley (soprano), Vernon Midgley (tenor), Orchestra of Romance conducted by Harold Geller, Philips 6382 113

References

English operatic sopranos 1940s births Living people Musicians from Edinburgh 20th-century British women opera singers {{UK-opera-singer-stub