KATHLEEN FERRIER had a career which was unique in the history of singing. She was born in Lancashire, England, in 1912 and died, after a painful illness, at the age of forty-one. In a professional life of no more than a dozen years she gained an international reputation and mastered a remarkable repertoire.
Having intended to be a piano teacher, when she was twenty five she was still at the stage of entering local competitions. But her fine, contralto voice matured so rapidly that she soon developed a reputation as a concert singer.
In 1946 she made her opera dÈbut in the world premiere of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. The following year she sang Orfeo in Gluckís opera Orfeo ed Euridice at Glyndebourne and in Holland. Her Covent Garden dÈbut was in the same rÙle, in the year of her death, 1953.
Her repertoire crossed boundaries. It extended from opera and oratorio, through lieder, to some of the most beautiful interpretations of folksong ever recorded. Her personality was one with her voice, producing performances of simplicity and absolute sincerity across diverse musical genres, and winning the hearts of a broad public.
Vocally, she was renowned for the uniquely even quality of sound she produced throughout a wide range. Her voice evokes something mysterious and profound in its natural colour. The conductor Bruno Walter, having worked with her on her interpretation of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, referred to her as ìone of the greatest singers of all time."
