Gomez, Jill
Gomez, Jill
Gomez, Jill, British Guianan soprano; b. New Amsterdam, Sept. 21, 1942. She studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. After her operatic debut in a minor role in Oberon with the Cambridge Univ. Opera in 1967, she sang Adina with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1968. In 1969 she made her first appearance at the Glyndebourne Festival as Melisande. On Dec. 2, 1970, she created the role of Flora in Tippett’s The Knot Garden at London’s Covent Garden. She appeared as the Countess in Musgrave’s The Voice of Ariadne with the English Opera Group in 1974. In 1977 she sang Tatiana at the Kent Opera. On March 25, 1979, she created the title role in the posthumous premiere of Prokofiev’s Maddalena on the BBC. She appeared as the Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the English National Opera in London in 1984. She also sang opera in Glasgow, Cardiff, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt am Main, Lyons, and other cities. Among her other roles were Fiordiligi, Donna Anna, Handel’s Cleopatra, Berlioz’s Teresa, Bizet’s Leila, and Britten’s Helena. As a concert artist, she was engaged for many appearances in Europe and North America.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire