Today’s masterclass and discussion celebrates the recent launch of Dame Felicity’s book Il nous faut de l’amour (co-written with Olivier Bellamy).
During the first half of the morning, Phoebe will have the great privilege of interviewing Dame Felicity. We will delve into her history as one of the great exponents of the Strauss and Mozart operatic repertoire (having sung both Octavian and the Marshallin to equally enraptured critical response, she truly is unique!), whilst not forgetting the incredible and palpable effect she has had on our art song heritage; co-creating the Songmakers Almanac with Graham Johnson in 1975. Having appeared as the eponymous heroines of La belle Hélène and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, there is no grande dame of opera that is more closely associated with the works of Offenbach than the Dame herself.
Honoured with a DBE in 1996, Dame Felicity (affectionately known simply as ‘Flott’) has had an unparalleled artistic career spanning both opera and song. A passionate Francophile, Flott was awarded the titles Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1990 and a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur in 2001, both in recognition of her services to music in the French language. Making her debut as Pamina in 1975 at the ENO, she has gone on to interpret many leading soprano roles at The Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and the Vienna Staatsoper, to name but a few.
After the break, let us take you back to the Belle Époque, in the presence of the divine Dame Felicity Lott, soprano and chanteuse of international acclaim when Phoebe will have the immense honour of working with her on arias from a range of Offenbach’s oft-misunderstood operettas, La Périchole and La belle Hélène.
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