1. Biography and career
    Early life  Debut  Opera  Oratorio and song  Retirement 

2. Honours and awards

3. Private life

4. Recordings {{anchor|EMI ASD 2338}}

5. References

6. External links

• Order of the Companions of Honour
• Order of the British Empire
• Léonie Sonning Music Prize

She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten. During her career, which spanned the 1950s to the 1980s, she was considered an outstanding singing actress and widely admired for her dramatic intensity, perhaps best represented in her famous portrayal as Dido, the tragic heroine of Berlioz's magnum opus, Les Troyens.^[2] As a concert performer, Dame Janet was noted for her interpretations of the music of Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar. David Gutman, writing in Gramophone, described her performance of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder as "intimate, almost self-communing."^[3]

Biography and career

Early life

Janet Abbott Baker was born in Hatfield, South Yorkshire, where her father was an engineer as well as a chorister.^[4][5] Members of her family worked at Bentley Pit, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.^[6] She attended York College for Girls and then Wintringham Girls' Grammar School in Grimsby.^[7] The death of her elder brother, Peter, when she was 10 years old, from a heart condition, was a formative moment that made her take responsibility for the rest of her life, she revealed in a BBC Radio 3 Lebrecht Interview in September 2011.^[8]

In her early years Baker worked in a bank, transferring to London in 1953 where she trained with Meriel St Clair and Helene Isepp, whose son Martin became her regular accompanist.^[9][9] Knocked down by a bus in 1956, she suffered concussion and a persistently painful back injury.^[10] That same year, she came second in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition at the Wigmore Hall, winning national attention.^[10]

Debut

In 1956, she made her stage debut with Oxford University's Opera Club as Miss Róza in Smetana's The Secret. That year, she also made her debut at Glyndebourne. In 1959, she sang Eduige in the Handel Opera Society's Rodelinda; other Handel roles included Ariodante (1964), of which she later made an outstanding recording with Raymond Leppard, and Orlando (1966), which she sang at the Barber Institute, Birmingham. {{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

Opera

With the English Opera Group at Aldeburgh, Baker sang Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962, Polly (in Benjamin Britten's version of The Beggar's Opera) and Lucretia (in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia). At Glyndebourne she appeared again as Dido (1966) and as Diana/Jupiter in Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto, and Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. For Scottish Opera she sang Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Dido in Berlioz's The Trojans as well as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas,^[11] Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and the role of Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. The latter was considered her signature role; she sang it in many productions and a videotaped performance from Glyndebourne is available (see below).

In 1966, Janet Baker made her debut as Hermia in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and went on to sing Berlioz's Dido, Kate in Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's Vitellia and Idamante, Cressida in William Walton's Troilus and Cressida and the title role in Gluck's Alceste (1981) there. For the English National Opera, she sang the title role in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (1971),^[12] Charlotte in Massenet's Werther, and the title roles in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Handel's Giulio Cesare.

Oratorio and song

During this same period she made an equally strong impact on audiences in the concert hall, both in oratorio roles and solo recitals. Among her most notable achievements are her recordings of the Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, made with Sir John Barbirolli in December 1964 and Sir Simon Rattle over twenty years later; her 1965 performances of Elgar's Sea Pictures and Mahler's Rückert Lieder, also recorded with Barbirolli; and, also from 1965, the first commercial recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Christmas oratorio Hodie under Sir David Willcocks. In 1963, she sang the contralto part in the first performance at the BBC Promenade Concerts of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony under the direction of Leopold Stokowski, then making his Proms debut appearances. She performed in 1971 for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston.^[13]

In 1976 she premiered the solo cantata Phaedra, written for her by Britten; and Dominick Argento's Pulitzer Prize-winning song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, also written with her voice in mind. She has also been highly praised for her insightful performances of Brahms's Alto Rhapsody, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder as well as solo songs from the French, German and English repertoire.

Retirement

Dame Janet Baker's final operatic appearance was as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, on 17 July 1982, at Glyndebourne.^[16] She continued to perform lieder recitals for another seven years, retiring for good in 1989 (although she did make a small handful of recordings in January, 1990). She published a memoir, Full Circle, in 1982. In 1991, Baker was elected Chancellor of the University of York.^[6] She held the position until 2004, when she was succeeded by Greg Dyke.^[6] An enthusiastic Patron of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, she gave an address at the closing ceremony of the 2009 event.^[14]

Honours and awards

Janet Baker was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970 and appointed to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976.^[15][16] She was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1993.^[17] In 1968, she was initiated as an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity by the Alpha Omicron Chapter at Occidental College, California, United States.^[18] She received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize of Denmark in 1979. She is the recipient of both Honorary Membership (1987) and the Gold Medal (1990) of the Royal Philharmonic Society. She has been a Vice-President of The Bach Choir since 1983.^[19] In 2007, she received the Distinguished Musician Award from the Incorporated Society of Musicians and in 2011 she was installed as an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians at a ceremony in the City of London.^[20][26] This is the highest honour the Company can bestow on a fellow musician.^[21]

She was voted into Gramophone magazine's inaugural Hall of Fame in 2012.^[22]

Private life

She married James Keith Shelley in 1957 in Harrow. Following her retirement as a singer she did perform and record some spoken roles, for example the role of the Narrator in Britten's incidental music for The Rescue of Penelope; in later years, apart from occasional public appearances such as the 2009 Leeds event, she now has "nothing to do with anyone except close friends".^[23]

Recordings {{anchor|EMI ASD 2338}}

• Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Beverly Sills, Robert Lloyd, Nicolai Gedda, Raimund Herincx, John Alldis Choir, New Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Patanè. 1975. Studio recording. EMI Records Ltd.
• Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict, with Christiane Eda-Pierre, Helen Watts, Robert Tear, London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis. Recorded Henry Wood Hall, 19–22 December 1977. LP Philips 6700 121. CD 416 952 2.^[30]
• Berlioz: Les Troyens : scenes from Act V and La Mort de Cléopâtre, London Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Gibson. Recorded Watford Town Hall, 14–15 September 1969. LP - ASD2516, CD CDM7 69544 2.^[30]
• Berlioz: L’Enfance du Christ, Op.25 - John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis. Recorded Watford Town Hall, 24–28 October 1976. LP Philips 6700 106, CD 415 949 2.^[30]
• Britten: Spring Symphony, op44, with Sheila Armstrong, Robert Tear, London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn. Recorded Kingsway Hall, 28–29 June 1978. LP ASD3650, CD CDC7 47667 2^[30]
• Delius: Songs of Sunset, John Shirley-Quirk, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Charles Groves
• Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37, London Symphony Orchestra, John Barbirolli. Recorded 30 August 1965, Abbey Road Studio 1. LP - ASD655, CD CDC7 47329 2^[24]
• Gluck: Orpheus and Euridice at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, conducted by Raymond Leppard. On video. Copyright 1982 by National Video Corporation, Limited.
• Handel: Julius Caesar with the English National Opera; Charles Mackerras conducting (Chandos CHAN 3019; recorded 1–7 August 1984; released 1999). A studio-made video of the ENO production, recorded at Limehouse Studio, was released on video and later DVD.^[25]
• Mahler: Kindertotenlieder with The Hallé Orchestra; John Barbirolli conducting (EMI LP cat. no. ASD 2338; released 1968)
• Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink (Philips, 1975)
• Mahler: Symphony No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Chorus etc., Leopold Stokowski conducting (BBC Proms 1963); (BBC Legends)
• Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in "The Klemperer Legacy"; Chor und Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischer Rundfunks ; Otto Klemperer conducting (EMI, 1998)
• Mozart: Cosi fan tutte, conducted by Colin Davis (Philips, 1974)
• Mozart: La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Colin Davis (Philips, 1977)
• Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, conducted by Anthony Lewis, English Chamber Orchestra, The St. Anthony Singers; rec. Oct. 1961; with Raimund Herincx as Aeneas. Decca Legendary Performances/UMG. SOL 60047.
• Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie, conducted by Anthony Lewis, English Chamber Orchestra, The St. Anthony Singers; rec. 1966; with Robert Tear as Hippolyte and Angela Hickey as Aricie. L'oiseau Lyre.
• Schubert: Lieder. A double-CD with pianists Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons, containing forty-two songs. EMI classics, 7243 5 69389 2

References

Notes

External links

• {{Allmusic|class=artist|id=q11307}}
• {{IMDb name|0048549}}
• An interview with Janet Baker recorded in 1994 - a British Library sound recording

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