Jill Gomez obit

Death of an enchanting British soprano

 

She was not on the list.

The BBC has reported the death of the Trinidad-born soprano Jill Gomez, a scintillating presence in opera and media. Jill was 83.

After acclaimed beginnings at Glyndebourne, she made national headlines by popping her bikini top at the Royal Opera House in Tippett’s The Knot Garden. A favourite of Jonathan Miller and Georg Solti, she flourished in Frankfurt, Zurich, Edinburgh and Lyon, also becoming a regular commentator on BBC Television.

In 1995 she created the scandalous lead role of the Duchess of Argyll in Thomas Ades’s debut opera, Powder Her Face.

Jill was a hardworking cast member who had no time for the rigidities of the opera establishment. She married the editor and writer Patrick Carnegy, who became 15th Earl of Northesk.

Gomez, a Spanish Trinidadian and to Denise Price Gomez (née Denham), and brought up in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father became managing director and vice-chairman of Angostura, the famous distillers, and her British mother was a well-known actress and broadcaster in Trinidad.

After studying at St. Joseph's Convent (Port of Spain) in Trinidad and dominating at the islands' biennial Music Festival, she moved to England at 13, where she studied voice and piano at London's Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where her most important teacher was Walther Gruner. While studying at Guildhall, Jill performed the role of Helen on alternate nights with contralto singer Ann Wilson, in The Conspirators (Shubert), directed by Brian Trowell.

Her career began at Glyndebourne where she twice won the John Christie Award, making her solo operatic debut as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1968. Also in 1968 came her Aminta in Il re pastore, at Ledlanet Nights. Gomez then created the role of Flora in The Knot Garden at the Royal Opera, London in 1970 and that of the Countess in Thea Musgrave's The Voice of Ariadne at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1973. She also appeared in productions by the English National Opera (Governess), Scottish Opera (Elisabeth, Pamina, Anne Truelove, Leïla), Oper Frankfurt (Cleopatra), Kent Opera (Tatyana, Violetta, Aminta, Donna Anna), Glyndebourne (Mélisande, La Calisto), Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux (Fiordiligi), Wexford (Thaïs and Rosaura) and Teresa at the Berlioz Festival in Lyon.

She worked closely with Jonathan Miller in La traviata for Kent Opera (Edinburgh Festival and UK tour), and Eugene Onegin and The Turn of the Screw (with ENO). She also played the Governess with the English Opera Group with the composer, Benjamin Britten, present.

Gomez was outspoken about the "international opera circus" and had no ambition to sing at the largest houses, preferring smaller venues such as Zürich where there is sufficient rehearsal time. She appeared in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production of Lucio Silla there, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. She also sang Arne cantatas with Jaap Schröder and Concerto Amsterdam. She took part in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Israel Philharmonic under Solti. As well as recording of Ravel, with Boulez she performed the Webern Opp. 13 and 14 song cycles.

In 1995, Gomez created the lead role of the Duchess of Argyll in Powder Her Face. Her recording of the latter role was nominated for a Grammy Award, and in Allmusic Erik Eriksson wrote: "Gomez's portrayal is a tour de force, alternately opulent and unhinged. She achieves the difficult task of making a figure of ridicule into a person who evokes sympathy from the listener." Alongside The Knot Garden and The Voice of Ariadne, she was also in the premieres (on radio) of Miss Julie (William Alwyn, 1979) and Maddalena (Prokofiev, 1980).

Her television debut was in the series Music Now produced by John Drummond in 1968–69, and other TV and film credits include the French film Une Femme française, and television programmes A Ladies Knight! (1987), Rattle on Britten (1985) and a BBC programme Opera in Rehearsal: The Marriage of Figaro Act 2 with Anthony Besch (1973).

Gomez lived in Cambridgeshire with her husband, music critic Patrick Carnegy, 15th Earl of Northesk