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"The amazing life of Susan Chilcott"
(1963 - 2003)
"An Operatic soprano
capable of expressing the rawest of emotions in the most beautiful
of tones."
Susan Chilcott (July
8, 1963 – September 4, 2003) was an English soprano, considered one of the best of her generation. While
achieving worldwide fame among the aficionados of opera and classical music in general, she failed to become a household name,
something which she would have undoubtedly have done but for her death from breast cancer at the age of 40. She had success
in many of the major opera houses around the world and was particularly known for her interpretations of Britten and Janáček.
Susan Chilcott was born in the village of
Timsbury, near Bath, England. Her talent was obvious from an early age. She sang in chapels and community halls in the area
as well in school assemblies at Writhlington School, near Bath, which she attended between 1974 and 1979. At the age
of 12 her talent was noted by Mollie Petrie, a singing teacher, who remained with her as a singing coach and advisor for the
rest of her career. In 1982, she started studying at the Guildhall School of Music where her tutor was Noelle Barker.
Her operatic debut was as the First Lady in The Magic Flute, in Oviedo
in 1991. In that year she also sang with the Scottish Opera. The performance which could be described as her major breakthrough,
bringing her to the attention of a wider audience, was her interpretation of Ellen Orford in Benjamin Britten's Peter
Grimes at La Monnaie in Belgium in 1994. During the next few years, she had huge success in Europe, singing roles from
Verdi, Boesman, Dvořák, Britten and Janáček. Indeed, her performance in 1999 in Janáček's
Katya Kabanova was considered by many critics to be one of her best. Another triumphant performance was in
2001 at Glyndebourne as Desdemona in Sir Peter Hall's production of Otello. In 2002 she sang opposite Plácido
Domingo in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades at Covent Garden. Her last full operatic role was as Jenufa for Welsh
National Opera in 2003 and for this she received, posthumously, the 2003 Royal Philharmonic Society Singer Award. Apart from
her operatic work, she also gave concerts, often with pianist Iain Burnside, a close friend, and with him and the actress
Fiona Shaw, gave intimate poetry recitals.
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"Antonio
Pappano - Music Director Covent Garden" ''It is rare to
come across an opera star who is as good an actress as she is a singer,''
Susan
Chilcott was an English soprano. At the age of twelve she began singing lessons with Mollie Petrie , who was to remain her teacher and mentor, and from 1982 to 1986 she
studied at the GSMD. After singing mainly in oratorio and recitals, she made her professional operatic début as Frasquita
in Scottish Opera's 1991 production of Carmen, returning
to Glasgow the following year as First Lady in Die Zauberflöte. Her major breakthrough came in
1994 , when she sang Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes
at La Monnaie, a performance described as ‘treasurable for the assurance with which she moved and for a soprano voice
of great beauty and expressivity’. The same year her portrayal of Tatyana in Yevgeny Onegin for
Glyndebourne Touring Opera was widely praised for its mingled vulnerability and dramatic urgency.
"A formidable talent taken before her
time - cheating the people of an iconic and much loved figure"
Susan Chilcott made her ENO début in 1995 as Rusalka,
but for the next few years she worked largely outside the UK, mainly at La Monnaie (where she sang Verdi's Desdemona, the
Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Hermione in Philippe Boesmans's Wintermärchen),
at the Théâtre Musical de Paris (Fiordiligi and Tatiana), and at the Nederlandse Opera (Kát’a Kabanová
and Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites). In 1999
she scored a triumph as Kát’a for Scottish Opera, and in 2001
sang Lisa in The Queen of Spades for Welsh National Opera and a tender, poignant Desdemona for
Glyndebourne. That year she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the last two years of her life she gave three of her most
memorable portrayals: Lisa (opposite Domingo ) in her 2002 Covent Garden début; a touching and witty Helena (A Midsummer Night's
Dream) in her Metropolitan Opera début the same year; and finally, in March
2003 , a blazing, sensual Jenufa for Welsh National Opera. Chilcott was also a delightful
recitalist, notably in a programme of Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson settings she devised with the actress Fiona
Shaw and the pianist Iain Burnside . Her small legacy of recordings includes Gustav Mahler's
Second Symphony, Wintermärchen and songs by Benjamin Britten and Aaron Copland .
Iain Burnside
Since
her student days Susan Chilcott appeared in recital with pianist Iain Burnside.
In 2001, Chilcott was diagnosed with breast cancer, but recovered
sufficiently to return to the stage. In 2003, she relapsed, and died on 4 September 2003, aged 40.
"The Susan Chilcott Scholarship"
After her death, a scholarship, known as the Susan Chilcott Scholarship, was set up to help aspiring singers with
their careers. Its patron is Plácido Domingo, the
President is Jonathan
Dimbleby and the trustees are Dame Josephine Barstow, Iain Burnside (Chair), Neal Davies, Anthony Freud, Alan Parker, Ian Rosenblatt,
Graham Sheffield and Shaun
Woodward. The scholarship is awarded
annually and is administered by the Royal Philharmonic Society.
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