Heather Harper

Heather Harper was born in Belfast in May 1930 and educated at Trinity College of Music in London. She made her début with the Oxford University Opera Club in 1954 as Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s opera, and through the late 1950s built her career across the BBC studio chamber music programmes and the British contemporary scene.

She became one of the leading British sopranos of the post-war international concert and operatic repertoire. Her central operatic roles were Anne in Stravinsky’s *The Rake’s Progress*, Helena in Britten’s *A Midsummer Night’s Dream* (a role she sang at the world premiere in 1960), Ellen Orford in *Peter Grimes*, Marguerite in *Faust*, the Countess in *Le nozze di Figaro*, and the title role in Verdi’s *Aida*. She sang the soprano solo in the world premiere of Britten’s *War Requiem* in 1962 at the consecration of Coventry Cathedral — replacing Galina Vishnevskaya at short notice — and made the first studio recording of the work under the composer’s direction. She also gave the world premieres of works by Tippett, Lennox Berkeley, Maxwell Davies and Penderecki. She was a leading recitalist particularly in the lieder of Schumann, Schubert and Strauss.

Harper was appointed CBE in 1965 and was awarded numerous honorary degrees. She died in London in April 2019. Music Preserved’s archive includes a substantial range of her concert, contemporary and recital work.