User:Silverstrand2882/Anne Howells

Anne Howells

Anne Howells (born 12 January 1941, at Southport, England) is a British mezzo-soprano. She studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now the Royal Northern) with Frederick Cox and made two notable debuts as a mezzo-soprano while still in her mid-20s: as Erisbe in Cavalli’s L’Ormindo at Glyndebourne, and as Flora in the Visconti/Guilini Traviata at the Royal Opera House. She continued to sing regularly at both of these houses throughout a career which took her to almost every major opera house and concert hall in the world. These include the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Opera houses of both San Francisco and Los Angeles, the four Parisian opera houses, the Grand Opera of Geneva, the Salburger Festspiele, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein of Vienna. Directors with whom she worked include Sir Peter Hall, Nicholas Hytner, John Schlesinger, Jean-Pierre Ponelle, Gunther Rennert and John Copley. Conductors included Colin Davis, James Levine, Sir Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, Silvio Varviso and Andre Previn.

She is especially noted for her portrayals of Mozart’s Dorabella in Così fan tutte (Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Chicago, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne), Melisande (Scottish Opera, Royal Opera House), Concepcion in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole (Amsterdam and Opera Comique, Paris) and Octavian – she sings the title role on the Solti/Schlesinger DVD of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier by the Royal Opera. Other roles at the Royal Opera have included Giulietta in Tales of Hoffman, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Despina as well as Dorabella, and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Howells accompanied the Royal Opera on three tours: As Ascanius in Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini and Annius in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at La Scala Milan, and Despina in Così fan tutte in Japan. She sang Helen in Tippett’s King Priam in the Royal Opera’s tour to the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens.

Anne also took part in many other contemporary operas: Cathleen in Nicholas Maw’s Rising of The Moon at Glyndebourne, at the Royal Opera as Lena in Richard Rodney Bennett’s Victory, Ophelia in Searle’s Hamlet, Thea in Michael Tippett’s Knot Garden, and Lady de Hautdesert in Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain and the Green Knight.

Anne Howells retired from performing in 2000 and now teaches singing at the Royal Academy of Music where she was recently awarded an Hon RAM, the highest honour that the Academy confers.