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Janet Baker

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Dame Janet Baker is an English mezzo-soprano, best known as an opera, concert and lieder singer. She was born on 21 August 1933 in Hatfield in Yorkshire. Her father was an engineer and choir singer. She first worked at a bank and in 1953 moved to London, where she studied with Meriel St Clair and Helene Isepp. Isepp's son Martin became her regular accompanist. In 1956 she was knocked down by a bus and suffered concussion and lasting back pain. The same year she came second in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial competition and made her stage debut, at the Oxford University Opera Club, and at Glyndebourne.

Music and breakthrough

In 1959 she sang Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda, later among others Ariodante, of which she made a well-known recording with Raymond Leppard. With the English Opera Group in Aldeburgh she sang Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in 1962 and in works by Benjamin Britten, such as The Rape of Lucretia. At Glyndebourne she sang Dido again in 1966 and roles in Cavalli's La Calisto and Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse. Her career lasted from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Influence

Baker is especially close to Baroque music, early Italian opera and the work of Britten. She was considered an exceptional singer and actress, admired for her dramatic intensity, which was best heard in her interpretation of Dido, the tragic queen. She showed that singing can be more than a beautiful voice, because every note carries a feeling.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to her Dido in the closing lament When I am laid in earth and notice the descending line in the bass: how does her voice follow the despair, and where does she hold back?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists