Coates, Edith (Mary)

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Coates, Edith (Mary)

Coates, Edith (Mary), English mezzo-soprano; b. Lincoln, May 31, 1908; d. Worthing, Jan. 7, 1983. She studied at Trinity Coll. of Music in London and with Carey and Borgioli. In 1924 she joined the Old Vic Theatre in London, where she sang major roles from 1931 to 1946. In 1937 she appeared at London’s Covent Garden, where she was on the roster until 1939 and again from 1947 to 1963. She sang in the premieres of Britten’s Peter Grimes (1945) and Gloriana (1953), and of Bliss’s The Olympians (1949). Among her other roles were the Countess in The Queen of Spades, Carmen, Delila, Amneris, Ortrud, and Azucena. In 1977 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire