Watkinson, Carolyn
Watkinson, Carolyn
Watkinson, Carolyn, English mezzo-soprano; b. Preston, March 19,1949. She received her training at the Royal Manchester Coll. of Music and in The Hague. She first established herself as a fine concert singer, especially excelling in Baroque music. In 1978 she sang Rameau’s Phèdre at the English Bach Festival at London’s Covent Garden. In 1979 she appeared as Monteverdi’s Nero with the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. In 1981 she made her debut at Milan’s La Scala as Ariodante and sang Rossini’s Rosina in Stuttgart. She appeared as duck’s Orfeo with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1982, and then made her formal debut at the Glyndebourne Opera as Cherubino in 1984. In 1987 she made a tour of Australia. She was a soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion at Gloucester Cathedral in a performance shown on BBC-TV on Good Friday in 1989. In 1990 she appeared as Purcell’s Dido at the Salerno Cathedral and sang Nero at the Innsbruck Festival. She also continued to sing regularly as a concert artist in a repertoire ranging from early music to the contemporary period.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire