Janet Baker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dame
Janet Baker
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Janet Baker in 1967
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Janet Abbott Baker
21 August 1933 Hatfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
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| Occupation | Opera singer (mezzo-soprano) |
| Years active | 1950s–1980s |
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Dame Janet Abbott Baker, born on August 21, 1933, is a famous English singer. She is known for her beautiful mezzo-soprano voice. She performed in operas, concerts, and sang German songs called lieder.
Janet Baker was especially good at singing old Italian operas and the music of Benjamin Britten. She sang from the 1950s to the 1980s. People admired her for her strong acting on stage. One of her most famous roles was Dido, a sad hero in the opera Les Troyens by Berlioz. As a concert singer, she was known for performing music by Gustav Mahler and Edward Elgar.
Contents
About Janet Baker's Life and Career
Her Early Life and Training
Janet Abbott Baker was born in Hatfield, Yorkshire. Her father was an engineer and also sang in a choir. Many of her family members worked in a coal mine nearby. She went to school at York College for Girls and then Wintringham Girls' Grammar School. When she was 10, her older brother Peter passed away from a heart problem. This sad event made her feel responsible for her life. She shared this in a radio interview in 2011.
In her early years, Janet worked at a bank. In 1953, she moved to London to study singing. She trained with Meriel St Clair and Helene Isepp. Helene's son, Martin Isepp, often played the piano for Janet's performances. In 1956, she placed second in a national singing competition. This helped her become known across the country.
Her First Performances
In 1956, Janet Baker sang on stage for the first time. She played Miss Róza in Smetana's opera The Secret with Oxford University's Opera Club. That same year, she also performed at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In 1959, she sang Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda. She also performed other Handel roles like Ariodante in 1964 and Orlando in 1966.
Her Opera Roles
Janet Baker sang many important roles with the English Opera Group. These included Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962. She also sang Polly in Benjamin Britten's The Beggar's Opera and Lucretia in Britten's The ... of Lucretia.
At Glyndebourne, she sang Dido again in 1966. She also played Diana/Jupiter in Cavalli's La Calisto and Penelope in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. For Scottish Opera, she performed as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte. She also sang Dido in Berlioz's The Trojans and Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. Her role as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice was very special to her. She sang it in many shows, and a video of her Glyndebourne performance is available.
In 1966, Baker made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She sang Hermia in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Other roles there included Dido in Berlioz's opera and Kate in Britten's Owen Wingrave. She also sang Vitellia and Idamante in Mozart's operas. For the English National Opera, she performed the main role in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea in 1971. She also sang Charlotte in Massenet's Werther and the main roles in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and Handel's Giulio Cesare.
Concert and Song Performances
During her career, Janet Baker also impressed audiences in concert halls. She sang in oratorios and gave solo recitals. Some of her most famous recordings include the Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. She recorded this with Sir John Barbirolli in 1964 and with Sir Simon Rattle over twenty years later. In 1965, she recorded Elgar's Sea Pictures and Mahler's Rückert Lieder with Barbirolli. Also in 1965, she made the first commercial recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Christmas oratorio Hodie.
In 1963, she sang in the first performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at the BBC Promenade Concerts. This was conducted by Leopold Stokowski. In 1976, she performed the first show of Phaedra, a solo cantata written for her by Britten. She also premiered Dominick Argento's song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, which was also written for her voice. She was also praised for her performances of Brahms's Alto Rhapsody and Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder.
Her Retirement
Dame Janet's last opera performance was as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. This was on July 17, 1982, at Glyndebourne. She continued to give lieder recitals, finally retiring for good in 1989. She wrote a book about her life called Full Circle in 1982. In 1991, she became the Chancellor of the University of York. She held this important position until 2004. She is also a big supporter of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Janet Baker received many honors for her amazing career. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970. Then, she was appointed Dame Commander (DBE) in 1976. In 1993, she became a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH).
In 1968, she became an Honorary Member of Sigma Alpha Iota, a music group in the United States. In 1971, she received the Shakespeare Prize from a foundation in Hamburg, Germany. She also won the Léonie Sonning Music Prize from Denmark in 1979. The Royal Philharmonic Society gave her both an Honorary Membership in 1987 and a Gold Medal in 1990. She has been a vice-president of The Bach Choir since 1983. In 2007, she received the Distinguished Musician Award. In 2011, she was made an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. This is the highest honor they can give to a musician. She also received a Fellowship from the Royal Northern College of Music in 1978.
In 2012, Gramophone magazine added her to its first Hall of Fame.
Her Private Life
Janet Baker married James Keith Shelley in 1957. He became her manager and traveled with her to her performances. After she retired from singing, she took on some spoken roles. For example, she was the narrator in Britten's music for The Rescue of Penelope. In later years, she mostly spent time with close friends. These friends include singer Felicity Lott and pianist Imogen Cooper. After her husband had a stroke, she cared for him at home until he passed away in June 2019.
Recordings
Janet Baker made many recordings throughout her career. Here are some of them:
- Bellini: I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1975)
- Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict (1977)
- Berlioz: Les Troyens: scenes from Act V and La Mort de Cléopâtre (1969)
- Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ, Op.25 (1976)
- Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, op 53 (1970)
- Britten: Spring Symphony, op 44 (1978)
- Delius: Songs of Sunset
- Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius (recorded 1964 and 1986)
- Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1965)
- Gluck: Orpheus and Euridice at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (video, 1982)
- Handel: Julius Caesar with the English National Opera (1984)
- Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1966)
- Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (1968)
- Mahler: Rückert Lieder (recorded 1967, 1968, 1974, 1987)
- Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (recorded 1970, 1975, 1977)
- Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (recorded 1963, 1965, 1974, 1986, 1998)
- Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (1987)
- Mozart: Cosi fan tutte (1974)
- Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (1977)
- Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (1961)
- Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (1966)
- Schubert: Lieder (a double-CD with 42 songs)
- Verdi: Requiem (1977)
Images for kids
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Janet Baker in 1967
See also
In Spanish: Janet Baker para niños
