Connell, Elizabeth
Connell, Elizabeth
Connell, Elizabeth , Irish mezzo-soprano, later soprano; b. Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Oct. 22, 1946. She was a student of Otakar Kraus at the London Opera Centre. In 1972 she won the Maggie Teyte Prize and made her operatic debut at the Wexford Festival as Varvara in Kát’a Kabanová. In 1975 she sang with the Australian Opera in Sydney, and from 1975 to 1980 she was a member of the English National Opera in London, where she won notice as Eboli and Herodias. In 1976 she made her debut at London’s Covent Garden as Verdi’s Viclinda, and in 1980 at the Bayreuth Festival as Ortrud. In 1983 she turned to soprano roles, and in 1984 appeared as Electra at the Salzburg Festival and as Norma in Geneva. On Jan. 7, 1985, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Vitellia, and then returned to Covent Garden to sing Leonora in Il Trovatore and Leonore in Fidelio. In 1990 she portrayed Lady Macbeth in Bonn, a role she reprised in Cologne in 1992. She appeared as Isolde at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 1993. In 1997 she was engaged as Elektra at the San Francisco Opera, and returned there as Isolde in 1998. On March 21, 1999, she sang Senta at the opening of the new Macau Cultural Centre.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire