Obituary,
Josephine Veasey (1930-2022)
The British dramatic mezzo Josephine Veasey, who excelled in Wagner and Berlioz, has died aged 91.
Veasey was born in Peckham in 1930 and studied with Audrey Langford, beginning her career at 19 as a chorus-member at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. In 1954 she sang her first solo role (the Shepherd-Boy in Wagner’s Tannhäuser) for the company and became a regular fixture there over the course of her career, in roles as diverse as Mozart’s Cherubino and Dorabella, Marina in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Strauss’s Octavian, Verdi’s Eboli and Amneris, and Wagner’s Fricka, Waltraute, Brangaene and Venus.
Though she initially honed her craft in lyric mezzo roles (including a stint with the UK touring company Opera For All), it quickly became apparent that Veasey’s wide-ranging, incisive voice and regal stage-presence were a natural fit for more dramatic repertoire, and with the encouragement of Sir Georg Solti and Sir Colin Davis respectively she began to gravitate towards Wagner and Berlioz from the mid-1960s onwards: her discography includes Fricka on Karajan’s Ring Cycle, Didon on Davis’s Grammy-winning 1969 recording of Les Troyens, and Marguerite on his Damnation de Faust four years later. She also enjoyed considerable success as Cassandre in Les Troyens (which she sang in alternation with Didon in Covent Garden’s 1972 production under Davis), and as Purcell's very different Queen of Carthage, which she recorded with him the following year.
Veasey made only occasional forays into the bel canto repertoire, but a live recording of Bellini’s Norma (opposite Montserrat Caballé in the title-role and Jon Vickers as Pollione) finds her in supple, sensual voice as the young priestess Adalgisa, and she was similarly stylish as Agnese on Richard Bonynge’s studio recording of the same composer’s Beatrice di Tenda in the mid-1960s. She also created roles in several significant new operas (notably Andromache in Tippett’s King Priam in 1962 and The Emperor in Henze’s We Come To The River in 1976), as well as singing Hermia on Britten’s own studio recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1966.
Veasey gave her final operatic performance in 1982, singing Herodias in Salome opposite Josephine Barstow in the title-role and Bernd Weikl as Jokanaan; after retiring from the stage she devoted much of her time to teaching, and mentored a number of fine British mezzos including Felicity Palmer and Sally Burgess. Her death was announced by her family yesterday.
Josephine Veasey - a selected discography
Nicolai Gedda (Faust), Josephine Veasey (Marguerite), Jules Bastin (Méphistophélès), Richard Van Allan (Brander)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Ambrosian Singers, Sir Colin Davis
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Jon Vickers (Enée), Josephine Veasey (Didon), Berit Lindholm (Cassandre), Peter Glossop (Chorèbe), Pierre Thau (Priam/Un soldat troyen/Mercure), Anthony Raffell (Panthée), David Lennox (Helenus), Anne Howells (Ascagne), Elizabeth Bainbridge (Hécube/Le spectre de Cassandre)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Sir Colin Davis
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Wotan), Josephine Veasey (Fricka), Gerhard Stolze (Loge), Erwin Wohlfahrt (Mime), Zoltán Kéléman (Alberich), Simone Mangelsdorff (Freia), Oralia Domínguez (Erda), Martti Talvela (Fasolt), Karl Ridderbusch (Fafner)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Jon Vickers (Siegmund), Martti Talvela (Hunding), Thomas Stewart (Wotan), Gundula Janowitz (Sieglinde), Régine Crespin (Brünnhilde), Josephine Veasey (Fricka)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan
Available Format: 4 CDs + Blu-ray Audio
Joan Sutherland (Beatrice di Tenda), Josephine Veasey (Agnese), Luciano Pavarotti (Orombello), Cornelius Opthof (Filippo Maria Visconti), Joseph Ward (Anichino/Rizzardo)
London Symphony Orchestra, Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Richard Bonynge
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Elizabeth Harwood (Tytania), Alfred Deller (Oberon), Peter Pears (Lysander), Thomas Hemsley (Demetrius), Heather Harper (Helena), Josephine Veasey (Hermia), John Shirley-Quirk (Theseus), Helen Watts (Hippolyta), Owen Brannigan (Bottom), Norman Lumsden (Quince)
London Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Britten
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Josephine Veasey (Dido), John Shirley-Quirk (Aeneas), Helen Donath (Belinda), Delia Wallis, Elizabeth Bainbridge (Sorceress), Thomas Allen (Spirit), Frank Patterson (Sailor)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields & John Alldis Choir, Sir Colin Davis
Available Format: SACD
Martina Arroyo (soprano), Josephine Veasey (mezzo), Placido Domingo (tenor), Ruggero Raimondi (bass)
London Symphony Orchestra & Choir, Leonard Bernstein
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Montserrat Caballé (Norma), Jon Vickers (Pollione), Josephine Veasey (adalgisa)
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Torino, Georges Prêtre
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
