Lott, Dame Felicity (Ann)

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Lott, Dame Felicity (Ann)

Lott, Dame Felicity (Ann), distinguished English soprano; b. Cheltenham, May 8, 1947. She studied in London at Royal Holloway Coll., Univ. of London, and at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1976 she sang at London’s Covent Garden in the premiere of Henze’s We Come to the River; she also appeared there as Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, and in various other roles. She appeared in Paris for the first time in 1976; made her Vienna debut in 1982 singing the 4 Letze Lieder of Strauss; in 1984 she was engaged as soloist with the Chicago Sym. Orch. In 1986 she sang at the wedding of the Duke and the Duchess of York at Westminster Abbey. In 1990 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. On Sept. 4, 1990, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as the Marschallin. She chose that same role for her San Francisco Opera debut in 1993. In 1994 she portrayed Strauss’s Countess at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, and in 1998 at the Glyndebourne Festival. In 1999 she made her first appearance with the N.Y. Phil, under Previn’s direction in excerpts from Arabella and Capriccio. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996. Among her finest roles are Pamina, Countess Almaviva, Donna Elvira, Octavian, Arabella, and Anne Trulove.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire