Edith Coates
Encyclopedia
Edith Coates OBE was an English operatic mezzo-soprano
. A highly gifted actress with a striking stage presence, Coates initially found success in larger dramatic roles before transitioning into portraying mainly character parts in the 1950s. She began her career with Lilian Baylis
's opera company at the Old Vic
in 1924. She stayed with the company when it moved to the Sadler's Wells Theatre
and remained with them up through 1946. Coates career was put on hold while the London stages were closed during World War II
. There is no doubt that the war limited her career as it occurred during her prime singing years; though she was also said not to have been excessively ambitious. In 1947 Coates joined the Royal Opera, London
where she remained until her retirement from the stage in 1967.
in London
and later with Clive Carey
, Dawson Freer and Dino Borgioli
. She began her career in 1924 with the Vic Wells Opera, first as a member of the chorus and then in smaller roles. When the company moved to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931 she became the company's leading mezzo-soprano, notably singing in the UK premieres of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
's The Snow Maiden
(as Lel) and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan
(as Tkachikha) in 1933. She also had a tremendous success with the company as Princess Eboli in Giuseppe Verdi
's Don Carlos
in 1937. On June 7, 1945 she portrayed Auntie in the world premiere of Benjamin Britten
's Peter Grimes
at the Sadler's Wells Theatre.
In 1937 Coates made her Covent Garden
debut, but did not become a member of the company until a decade later. In 1947 she returned to the house to portray the title role in Georges Bizet
's Carmen
in the company's first full-scale production since the house was closed during World War II. She remained a member of the Royal Opera for the next two decades, initially portraying leading roles like Azucena in Il trovatore
, Fricka in Die Walküre
, and Amneris in Aida
. She eventually gravitated to character roles in the 1950s.
While at the Royal Opera, Coates notably sang in several world premieres, including Madame Bardeau in Arthur Bliss
's The Olympians
(1949), the Housewife in Britten's Gloriana
(1953), and the She-Ancient in Michael Tippett
's The Midsummer Marriage
(1955). She was also highly praised for her performance of the Countess in the first English-language production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
's The Queen of Spades
(1950). She later portrayed 'Grandma' in the world premiere of Grace Williams
’s The Parlour at the Welsh National Opera
in 1966.
Coates retired from the stage after the conclusion of the 1966-1967 opera season. In 1977 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Her husband, Powell Lloyd
, was a tenor who later had success as an opera producer and set designer. In 1982 she was among a number of artists on stage at Covent Garden
who congratulated Dame Eva Turner at a gala for Turner's 90th birthday.
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
. A highly gifted actress with a striking stage presence, Coates initially found success in larger dramatic roles before transitioning into portraying mainly character parts in the 1950s. She began her career with Lilian Baylis
Lilian Baylis
Lilian Mary BaylisCH was an English theatrical producer and manager. She managed the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres in London, and ran an opera company, which became the English National Opera , a theatre company, which evolved into the English National Theatre, and a ballet company, which...
's opera company at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
in 1924. She stayed with the company when it moved to the Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
and remained with them up through 1946. Coates career was put on hold while the London stages were closed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. There is no doubt that the war limited her career as it occurred during her prime singing years; though she was also said not to have been excessively ambitious. In 1947 Coates joined the Royal Opera, London
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...
where she remained until her retirement from the stage in 1967.
Biography
Coates studied singing with Ethel Henry Bird at the Trinity College of MusicTrinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and later with Clive Carey
Clive Carey
Francis Clive Savill Carey CBE , known as Clive Carey, was a British baritone, singing teacher, composer, opera producer and folk song collector.-Biography:Clive Carey was born at Sible Hedingham, Essex in 1883...
, Dawson Freer and Dino Borgioli
Dino Borgioli
Dino Borgioli was an Italian lyric tenor. Praised by critics for his musicianship, he was particularly associated with roles in operas composed by Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti....
. She began her career in 1924 with the Vic Wells Opera, first as a member of the chorus and then in smaller roles. When the company moved to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931 she became the company's leading mezzo-soprano, notably singing in the UK premieres of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
's The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composed during 1880–1881. The Russian libretto, by the composer, is based on the like-named play by Alexander Ostrovsky .The first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera took place at the...
(as Lel) and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tale of Tsar Saltan
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Rimsky-Korsakov)
The Tale of Tsar Saltan is an opera in four acts with a prologue, seven scenes, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on the poem of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin...
(as Tkachikha) in 1933. She also had a tremendous success with the company as Princess Eboli in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
in 1937. On June 7, 1945 she portrayed Auntie in the world premiere of Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
at the Sadler's Wells Theatre.
In 1937 Coates made her Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
debut, but did not become a member of the company until a decade later. In 1947 she returned to the house to portray the title role in Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
in the company's first full-scale production since the house was closed during World War II. She remained a member of the Royal Opera for the next two decades, initially portraying leading roles like Azucena in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Fricka in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, and Amneris in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
. She eventually gravitated to character roles in the 1950s.
While at the Royal Opera, Coates notably sang in several world premieres, including Madame Bardeau in Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
's The Olympians
The Olympians
The Olympians is an opera in three acts by Arthur Bliss to a libretto by J. B. Priestley, first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 29 September 1949, conducted by Karl Rankl in a production by Peter Brook....
(1949), the Housewife in Britten's Gloriana
Gloriana
Gloriana is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by William Plomer, based on Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey...
(1953), and the She-Ancient in Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
's The Midsummer Marriage
The Midsummer Marriage
The Midsummer Marriage is an opera in three acts, with music and libretto by Michael Tippett. The work's first performance was at Covent Garden, 27 January 1955, conducted by John Pritchard...
(1955). She was also highly praised for her performance of the Countess in the first English-language production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
(1950). She later portrayed 'Grandma' in the world premiere of Grace Williams
Grace Williams
-Biography:Williams was born in Barry, near Cardiff, Wales.She was educated at Barry County School, and won a scholarship to Cardiff University . She then went to the Royal College of Music, London, where she was taught by Ralph Vaughan Williams...
’s The Parlour at the Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
in 1966.
Coates retired from the stage after the conclusion of the 1966-1967 opera season. In 1977 she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Her husband, Powell Lloyd
Powell Lloyd
Harold Powell Lloyd was an English operatic tenor and opera director and producer.-Biography:Lloyd studied singing at Morley College and later with Amy Martin and Herbert Oliver. He began his career as an actor at the Old Vic in his early 20s, excelling in the plays of William Shakespeare. During...
, was a tenor who later had success as an opera producer and set designer. In 1982 she was among a number of artists on stage at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
who congratulated Dame Eva Turner at a gala for Turner's 90th birthday.
Sources
- "Edith Coates, 74, of British Opera", New York Times, January 9, 1983.
- Harold RosenthalHarold RosenthalHarold David Rosenthal OBE was an English music critic, writer, lecturer, and broadcaster about opera. Originally a schoolmaster, he became drawn to music, particularly opera, and began working on musical publications...
. "Coates, Edith (Mary)", New Grove Dictionary of OperaNew Grove Dictionary of OperaThe New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
, edited by Stanley SadieStanley SadieStanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
(1992). ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5