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The English soprano, Felicity Lott, was educated in Cheltenham, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Felicity Lott built up a close relationship with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles have included Anne Trulove (Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress), Blanche (Francis Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmelites), Ellen Orford (Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes), Eva (R. Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Countess Almaviva (W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro) and the Marschallin (R. Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier). Her many roles at the Glyndebourne Festival have included Anne Trulove, Pamina, Donna Elvira, Countess Almaviva, Oktavian, Christine (Intermezzo), Countess Madeleine (Capriccio) and the title role in Arabella. Many of these performances were recorded for television.
Felicity Lott sang the title role in Louise, the Marschallin and Countess Madeleine in Brussels; Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, Countess Madeleine and the Marschallin in Paris; Countess Almaviva and Countess Madeleine with the Chicago Lyric Opera; Countess Madeleine at the Maggio Musicale in Florence; the Marschallin in San Francisco; the Marschallin and Arabella at the Semper Oper, Dresden; with the Bavarian State Opera Munich her roles include Christine, Countess Almaviva, Countess Madeleine and the Marschallin; she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York as the Marschallin under Carlos Kleiber and her debut at La Scala, Milan as Arabella under Sawallisch. With the Vienna State Opera she sang Arabella, Countess Madeleine and the Marschallin under Carlos Kleiber, which she repeated when the Company travelled to Japan and which was televised and released on video.
As a concert artist, Felicity Lott sang with all the major orchestras and festivals throughout the country, and appears regularly at the BBC Promenade Concerts. She sang with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, at the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festivals. She gave recitals all over Great Britain and had a particularly close association with Wigmore Hall. She appeared as a recitalist in Paris, Monte Carlo, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Lisbon, Rome, Florence, La Scala Milan, Hong Kong, New York, Sydney, at the Salzburg, Prague, Bergen and Munich Festivals, and the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. She was a founder member of Graham Johnson's The Songmakers' Almanac.
These successes are mirrored in Felicity Lott’s wide range of major recordings under such conductors as Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, Mariss Jansons, Neville Marriner, Charles Mackerras and Paavo Järvi and her love of the song repertoire is reflected in her extensive recordings of Wolf, Schubert, Robert Schumann, Strauss and the masters of French mélodies. She recorded Fiordiligi and Donna Elvira for Telarc, the Governess in The Turn of the Screw for Collins Classics and the title role in Die lustige Witwe for EMI.
Felicity Lott was awarded the title Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. She was made a CBE in the 1990 New Year Honours and in 1996 was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire. Among the singers who studied with her and/or attended her master-classes: Kris Belligh (Baritone), Emma Brain-Gabbott (Soprano), Eva Budde (Soprano), Hilary Cronin (Soprano), Matthias Dähling (Counter-tenor), Sarah Denbee (Mezzo-soprano), Lauren Lodge-Campbell (Soprano), Clara Osowski (Mezzo-soprano), Marie Perbost (Soprano), Natalie Pérez (Mezzo-soprano, Soprano), Theodora Raftis (Soprano), William Shelton (Counter-tenor), Raoul Steffani (Baritone), Lydia Teuscher (Soprano), Radoslava Vorgić (Soprano), Philip Wilcox (Bass-Baritone), Hubert Wild (Baritone, Counter-tenor).***
Felicity Lott married Robin Golding, a music writer, editor and registrar at the Royal Academy of Music, in 1973. The couple were divorced in 1982, and he died in 2009. She married the actor Gabriel Woolf in 1984; the couple had a daughter. On her 79th birthday, she gave an interview to The Observer, in which she announced that she had cancer in a final stage. She auctioned her former haute couture dresses in support of hospices. Living near Brighton, East Sussex, she died of lung cancer in a local hospice on May 15, 2026, a week after her 79th birthday. Her death came shortly after the BBC Radio 4 programme about her, in the series This Cultural Life, was first broadcast. Her favourite relaxation was gardening. |
