Top Songs By Helen Watts
More albums from Helen Watts
ALBUMBach FamilyAdalbert Kraus, Niklaus Tüller, Walter Heldwein, Frankfurt Kantorei, Helmuth Rilling, Bach Ensemble, The, Wolfgang Schone, Helen Watts, Aldo Baldin, Kathrin Graf, Stuttgart Bach Collegium, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Indiana University Chamber Singers, Philippe Huttenlocher, Erika Schmidt-Valentin, Uta Spreckelsen, Stuttgart Figuralchor der Gedachtniskirche, Arleen Auger & Julia Hamari
ALBUMChoral Music (Sacred) - Bach, J.S. - Telemann, G.P. - Scheidt, S. - Cruger, J. - Mendelssohn, Felix - Franck, M. - Resinarius, B.Indiana University Chamber Singers, Helmuth Rilling, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Peter Schreier, Inga Nielsen, Helen Watts, Frankfurt Kantorei, Ulrich Stotzel, Siegen Bach Evangelischen Singgemeinde Choir, Siegen Bach Evangelischen Singgemeinde Orchestra, Wurttemberg Chamber Choir Stuttgart, Dieter Kunz, Heidelberg Kantorei & Erich Hübner
ALBUMThe Bach FamilyAdalbert Kraus, Niklaus Tüller, Walter Heldwein, Frankfurt Kantorei, Helmuth Rilling, Bach Ensemble, The, Wolfgang Schone, Helen Watts, Aldo Baldin, Kathrin Graf, Stuttgart Bach Collegium, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Indiana University Chamber Singers, Philippe Huttenlocher, Erika Schmidt-Valentin, Uta Spreckelsen, Stuttgart Figuralchor der Gedachtniskirche, Arleen Auger & Julia Hamari
ALBUMBach, J.S.: Cantatas, Bwv 38-40Arleen Auger, Helen Watts, Philippe Huttenlocher, Lutz-Michael Harder, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling, Stuttgart Bach Collegium, Gabriele Schreckenbach, Franz Gerihsen, Adalbert Kraus, Verena Gohl, Siegmund Nimsgern & Stuttgart Figuralchor der Gedachtniskirche
ALBUMBach, J.S.: Cantatas, Bwv 100-102Arleen Auger, Adalbert Kraus, Philippe Huttenlocher, Julia Hamari, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling, Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn, Helen Watts, Aldo Baldin, John Brocheler, Stuttgart Bach Collegium, Wolfgang Schone, Kurt Equiluz & Eva Randová
ALBUMBach, J.S.: Cantatas, Bwv 161-164Adalbert Kraus, Hildegard Laurich, Frankfurt Kantorei, Helmuth Rilling, Stuttgart Bach Collegium, Wolfgang Schone, Arleen Auger, Kurt Equiluz, Alyce Rogers, Helen Watts, Niklaus Tüller, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Walter Heldwein, Lutz-Michael Harder, Julia Hamari & Edith Wiens
ALBUMBach, J.S.: Cantatas, Bwv 188, 190-192Arleen Auger, Aldo Baldin, Walter Heldwein, Julia Hamari, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, Helmuth Rilling, Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn, Helen Watts, Kurt Equiluz, Niklaus Tüller, Stuttgart Bach Collegium, Adalbert Kraus, Nobuko Gamo-Yamamoto & Helen Donath
About Helen Watts
Artist Biography
Contralto Helen Watts was a leading member of that school of Welsh singers which came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s. Nurtured in a British Isles atmosphere that had turned from insularity to international performance, Watts became the leading British contralto (or mezzo-contralto) in the post-Kathleen Ferrier age. Though never wanting in artistic temperament, she was a model colleague, always well-prepared and ready to sing a fully invested performance. Her voice, of medium size though firmly focused, had a plushness that often made it seem larger than its actual size. She began by specializing in Handel and Bach, but grew artistically to become an exemplary singer of Mahler and Wagner. Watts did not neglect the works of Britten and Tippett either, performing and recording them as a part of her exceptionally extensive discography.
Watts studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and made her debut as Didymus in Handel's Theodora in a production mounted by the Handel Opera Society. She followed those performances with both Juno and Ines in Semele. She also sang in Rinaldo, an opera which she repeated at Berlin's Komische Oper and at Halle in 1961. By the early 1960s, she had established a relationship with the English Opera Group and played an important part in performances of Britten's operas, assuming the title role in The Rape of Lucretia during the EOG's 1964 tour of Russia. She sang at Covent Garden from 1965 to 1971, offering her richly vocalized Erda and First Norn, portraying Mrs. Sedley in Britten's Peter Grimes, and offering a commanding Sosostris in a revival of Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage. At the Welsh National Opera, she also performed numerous roles suitable for a contralto, among them Sosostris, Mrs. Sedley, a delicious Dame Quickly, and Lanina. At Salzburg in 1971, she was well received as Farnace in Mozart's Mitridate, Re di Ponto and in 1978, she sang a moving Arnalta in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea with the Scottish Opera.
However busy she may have seemed in the opera world, Watts was busier still in recital and concert work. Her initial performances in Handel led to a recording of Handel cantatas and then a flood of discs of wide-ranging repertory. She made numerous recordings of Bach, paralleling her live performances throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and America. Her years at Covent Garden coincided with the musical directorship of Georg Solti. Taken by her sumptuous voice and quality of musicianship, he employed her services for several recording projects and afforded her the international prominence she deserved. Aside from her First Norn in his Decca Götterdämmerung, he engaged her for his recordings of Mahler's Second, Third, and Eighth symphonies, all widely distributed and warmly praised. When Solti assumed the directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he brought Watts to Chicago for a series of memorable performances, including Mahler's Second Symphony and Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
Watts' Sosostris was recorded following the Tippett revival, the electronic medium greatly clarifying the composer's extremely thick orchestration and allowing her glorious singing to be heard. Watts was virtually on call to recording companies during her prime years, valued for her amazing consistency and unfussy approach to studio work. Her Angel in Elgar's Dream of Gerontius ranked with the best, and her interpretation of the contralto part in the Colin Davis recording of Handel's Messiah (including "But Who May Abide") is regarded by many as unsurpassed. Her recordings of Lieder were likewise exemplary, especially Brahms and Wolf.
Hometown
Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Genre
Classical
Similar to: Helen Watts
Discover more music and artists similar to Helen Watts, like John Wakefield, Adalbert Kraus, Wolfgang Schone