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Monica Sinclair

{{Short description|British operatic contralto (1925–2002)}}

{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}

Monica Sinclair (23 March 1925{{spaced ndash}}7 May 2002) was a British operatic contralto, who sang many roles with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden during the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared on stage and in recordings with Dame Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Malcolm Sargent and many others. She had a great gift for comedy, and sang in recordings of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, as well as in recordings from the standard operatic repertory.

Biography

Monica Sinclair was born on 23 March 1925, in Evercreech, Somerset. Her music studies were at the Royal Academy of Music. She made her debut with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1948, singing Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Her Covent Garden debut came in 1949, as the Second boy in Mozart's The Magic Flute. Her early Covent Garden roles included Maddalena (Rigoletto), Mrs Sedley (Peter Grimes), Feodor (Boris Godunov), Rosette (Manon), Flosshilde (Das Rheingold), Siegrune (Die Walküre), Azucena (Il trovatore), Pauline (The Queen of Spades), Mercedes (Carmen) and the Voice of Antonia's Mother (The Tales of Hoffmann). She can be heard as the voice of Nicklaus in the 1951 Powell and Pressburger film The Tales of Hoffmann.{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044103/fullcredits|title=The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) - IMDb|accessdate=20 August 2020|website=IMDb.com}}

She made her Glyndebourne debut in 1954 in the comic role of Ragonde in the first British performance of Rossini's Le comte Ory. There she also sang Berta (The Barber of Seville), Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Queen Henrietta (I puritani, with Dame Joan Sutherland). In 1965, she appeared in a television version of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny on BBC2 as Mrs Begbick.Noël Goodwin. Review of broadcast of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. BBC2, (28 February), Opera (April 1965, Vol 16, No 4, pp. 305-306).

Returning to Covent Garden in 1959/60, Sinclair added some new roles to her repertoire – Annina (Der Rosenkavalier, in Georg Solti's Covent Garden début, with Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Sena Jurinac), Bradamante (Alcina, directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli, with Dame Joan Sutherland in the title role), Theodosia (Die schweigsame Frau), the Old Prioress (Dialogues des Carmélites), Marfa (Khovanshchina), Emilia (Otello) and the Marquise de Birkenfeld (La fille du régiment, with Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti). She also sang the Marquise at the Metropolitan Opera, New York.{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/may/15/guardianobituaries |title=Obituary - Monica Sinclair |date=15 May 2002 |website=theguardian.com}}

Her other international appearances included the title role in Lully's Armide at Bordeaux in 1955.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Sinclair-Monica.htm|title=Monica Sinclair (Contralto) - Short Biography|website=Bach-cantatas.com|accessdate=20 August 2020}}

Premieres

Monica Sinclair created a number of roles (at Covent Garden unless indicated):

Recordings

Among Monica Sinclair's recordings are:{{Cite web|url=http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Monica-Sinclair/Performer/159845-2|title=Monica Sinclair | ArkivMusic|website=Arkivmusic.com|accessdate=20 August 2020}}

Private life and death

Monica Sinclair was married to Anthony Tunstall, a former Covent Garden horn player, with whom she had six children. The union was dissolved, however.{{When|date=March 2022}}

She died in 2002, aged 77.

References

Notes

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Sources

  • [http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Obits/MonicaSinclair/index.html Obituary, The Independent (London)], 13 May 2002, on powell-pressburger.org. Retrieved 23 March 2013
  • [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Sinclair-Monica.htm Biography, on bach-cantatas.com] Retrieved 23 March 2013

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Category:1925 births

Category:2002 deaths

Category:English contraltos

Category:British operatic contraltos

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music

Category:20th-century British women opera singers