{"id":22308,"date":"2022-12-01T11:33:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T10:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=176562"},"modified":"2022-12-01T12:10:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T11:10:20","slug":"soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque\/","title":{"rendered":"Soprano Jennifer Vyvyan honoured with plaque"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Steve Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 01 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

The leading British soprano Jennifer Vyvyan (1925-1974) is to be honoured with a plaque in her memory, near her North London home.<\/p>\n

Vyvyan was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 who wrote major roles for her in his operas The Turn of the Screw, A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream, Gloriana <\/em>and Owen Wingrave. <\/em>She was also a charismatic champion of mid-20th-century music, as well as a key figure in the modern stage revival of baroque operas and a popular star of radio and TV concerts.<\/p>\n\n<p>The plaque, at 59 Fitzjohn\u2019s Avenue in Hampstead where Vyvyan lived latterly, will be unveiled on Thursday 8 December, by the countertenor James Bowman, who worked with the singer.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-sopranos-all-time\/"\">The 20 Greatest Sopranos of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/mezzo-soprano-christa-ludwig-dies-aged-93\/"\">Mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig dies, aged 93<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/soprano-jessye-norman-a-timeline-of-the-great-american-singers-life\/"\">Soprano Jessye Norman: A timeline of the great American singer\u2019s life<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-soprano-kiri-te-kanawa\/"\">The best recordings of soprano Kiri Te Kanawa<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <p>Though she died young, aged just 49, Vyvyan made a distinguished contribution to the world of English concert and opera singing. For example, she ranked among the chief interpreters of the music of Benjamin Britten, who composed some of his most prominent female roles for her: the Governess in <em>Turn of the Screw<\/em>, Tytania in <em>A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, Lady Rich in <em>Gloriana <\/em>and\u00a0Mrs Julian in <em>Owen Wingrave<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve reviewed a disc of <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/reviews\/choral-song\/benjamin-britten-choral-works\/"\">Jennifer Vyvyan singing choral works by Britten<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Vyvyan played a key part in the modern stage revival of baroque opera, starring in performances of works by Handel and <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/henry-purcell\/"\"><strong>Purcell<\/strong><\/a> for the Handel Opera Society, Covent Garden, Sadlers Wells and Aldeburgh Festival.<\/p>\n<ul><li><strong><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title\" qa-card-link=\"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/handels-london-home-to-be-fully-restored\/"\">Handel\u2019s London home to be fully restored<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>She was also much loved by general audiences throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, thanks to hundreds of radio and TV appearances, regular invitations to the Proms and a large catalogue of commercial recordings.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Vyvyan was\u00a0chosen by Sir Arthur Bliss, Master of the Queen\u2019s Music, to take a leading part in what was at the time a hugely publicised piece of Anglo-Soviet cultural politics. In 1956, at the height of the Cold War, with East\/West cultural relations at an all-time low, Bliss organised a so-called a \u2018Musical Embassy\u2019: he took a handful of prominent British musicians to Russia, aiming to bring English music to Soviet audiences. Vyvyan was among that select band.<\/p>\n<p>The music critic Michael White has compiled a website about Vyvyan, her life and times: you can find it at <a href=\""http:\/\/www.jennifervyvyan.org"\"><strong>www.jennifervyvyan.org<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/australia-uk-orchestra-exchange-announced\/"\">Australia-UK orchestra exchange announced<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/the-snowman-gets-a-40th-birthday-tribute\/"\">\u2018The Snowman\u2019 gets a 40th birthday tribute<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/john-storgards-is-new-bbc-philharmonic-conductor\/"\">John Storg\u00e5rds is new BBC Philharmonic conductor<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/european-union-baroque-orchestra-returns\/"\">European Union Baroque Orchestra returns<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/manchester-camerata-features-in-music-and-dementia-documentary\/"\">Manchester Camerata features in music and dementia documentary<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section> <p>\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Steve Wright Published: Thursday, 01 December 2022 at 12:00 am The leading British soprano Jennifer Vyvyan (1925-1974) is to be honoured with a plaque in her memory, near her North London home. Vyvyan was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten \u2013 who wrote major roles for her in his operas The Turn of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":22309,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque.png",1210,946,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque-300x235.png",300,235,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque-768x600.png",768,600,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque-1024x801.png",800,626,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque.png",1210,946,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/12\/soprano-jennifer-vyvyan-honoured-with-plaque.png",1210,946,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Steve Wright Published: Thursday, 01 December 2022 at 12:00 am The leading British soprano Jennifer Vyvyan (1925-1974) is to be honoured with a plaque in her memory, near her North London home. Vyvyan was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten \u2013 who wrote major roles for her in his operas The Turn of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/22308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}