BARSTOW, JOSEPHINE (b 1940 )
Josephine Barstow
Dame Josephine Barstow is acknowledged as a singing actress
of the first rank. Her distinguished career has included acclaimed performances
of Salome. Tosca, the Lady Macbeths of Verdi and Shostakovich and an enormous
range of roles from Mozart to Janáček, including leading roles in the operas
of Benjamin Britten, in particular those of Queen Elizabeth in Gloriana and
Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes. In 1986 she toured the former Soviet Union singing
in Tbilisi, Riga and at the Bolshoy in Moscow. She created the protagonist in
the world premiere of Die schwarze Maske at the Salzburg Festival where Karajan
invited her back for Tosca and Un ballo in maschera, which she also recorded
with him. She has sung with the Paris Opéra, the Bavarian State Opera, Munich,
the English National Opera and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She
has also sung for all the major American opera companies, including the Metropolitan,
New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Houston. She was made a Commander of the
British Empire in 1985 and in the same year was presented with the Fidelio,
Medal on behalf of the International Opera Directors Association, only the sixth
such medal to be given. In 1995 she was created a Dame of the British Empire.
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