Gillian Knight (born 1 November 1934) is an English opera singer and actress, known for her performances in thecontralto roles of theSavoy operas. After six years from 1959 to 1965 starring in these roles with theD'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Knight began agrand opera career.
Knight joined Sadler's Wells Opera (now known asEnglish National Opera) in 1968 and, in 1970, went on tothe Royal Opera, where she performed numerous roles over a period of more than three decades. Knight has performed with many other opera companies in Britain, Europe and America and at houses internationally and has recorded many of herGilbert and Sullivan and grand opera roles.
Knight was born inRedditch, Worcestershire, England, and educated inBirmingham. She won a five-year scholarship to theRoyal Academy of Music, where she studied with May Blythe andRoy Henderson.[1] She sang in concerts, oratorio and on television with the Linden Singers while still at the Academy.[2]
Knight joined theD'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1959, going on tour immediately in eight of the leadingcontralto roles in theGilbert and Sullivan repertory. In September of that year, at the age of 25, she succeededAnn Drummond-Grant as the company's principal contralto on Drummond-Grant's death.[3]The Times wrote, "Many good Savoyards have regretted Gilbert's unkind lampooning of the unattractive elderly female, stouter than she used to be, with a caricature of a face and so on; and we have observed with gratitude that Buttercup, Ruth, Lady Jane and their equivalents are acted this season by a pleasing and personable young lady.... Miss Gillian Knight's Buttercup is in itself an iconoclastic impersonation."[4] Before even beginning to tour with the company, her first performance with the company was to play the role of Little Buttercup in the company's recording ofH.M.S. Pinafore released in 1960,[2][5] the first Gilbert and Sullivan recording to include complete dialogue.[6]
Knight spent almost six years with the D'Oyly Carte, appearing in the roles of Little Buttercup, Ruth inThe Pirates of Penzance, Lady Jane inPatience, the Fairy Queen inIolanthe, Lady Blanche inPrincess Ida, Katisha inThe Mikado, Dame Hannah inRuddigore, Dame Carruthers inThe Yeomen of the Guard, and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro inThe Gondoliers.[7]
Knight married D'Oyly Carte master carpenter Trevor Morrison in 1960. She left the D'Oyly Carte company in 1965, and soon afterwards, the couple's daughter,Rebecca, was born.[8] Rebecca Knight later became an opera singer.[9]
In 1968, Knight joinedSadler's Wells Opera, making her debut as Ragonde inCount Ory.[10]The Times noted, "Gillian Knight has a formidable stage presence as Ragonde, and a superbly articulated contralto to match."[11] For Sadler's Wells she also played, among other roles, Suzuki inMadama Butterfly,[12] Berta inThe Barber of Seville, Maddalena inRigoletto,[8] Isabella inThe Italian Girl in Algiers,[13] Dryade inAriadne on Naxos,[14] the title role inIolanthe ("most warmly, touchingly sung", wroteThe Times),[15] Lady Jane inPatience,[8] and the title role in Bizet'sCarmen, which she was soon invited to play at theRoyal Opera House, Covent Garden.[16] For theHandel Opera Society, she appeared atSadler's Wells Theatre inXerxes in 1970.[17]
In 1970, Knight made her Covent Garden debut as the Page inSalome.[10] In the same year she took over the role of Carmen fromTatiana Troyanos,[16] and in a later revival she succeededGrace Bumbry in the part.[18]Alan Blyth inThe Times wrote of her performance, "Miss Knight conveyed more than any recent Carmen in this house the sense of doom in Bizet's marvellous writing... going to her end, like all the best Carmens, with an almost heroic insolence."[16] The role brought her to international attention, and she performed it oppositePlácido Domingo.[19] She also performed at Covent Garden inArabella;[20]The Bartered Bride;[21]The Cunning Little Vixen;[22]Eugene Onegin;[23]Falstaff;[24]The Fiery Angel;[25]The Golden Cockerel;[26]Iphigénie en Tauride;[27]Jenůfa;[28]Die Meistersinger;[29]Rigoletto;[30] theRing cycle;[29]Der Rosenkavalier;[31]Semele;[29]La traviata;[32]Il trovatore;[8]Otello;[10] andWozzeck.[33] Among modern operas at Covent Garden, Knight appeared in the premieres ofPeter Maxwell Davies'sTaverner;[34]Hans Werner Henze'sWe Come to the River;[10]Nicholas Maw'sSophie's Choice;[5]Michael Tippett'sKing Priam;[35] andAlexander Zemlinsky'sThe Dwarf.[36]
Other opera venues where Knight has sung include theParis Opéra, theTanglewood Festival, and Pittsburgh, Frankfurt, Basel (where she sang in the premiere ofFaust by Luca Lombardi),Scottish Opera,Opera North, the New Israeli Opera,[37] and theWexford Festival, where she appeared inAdrien Boieldieu'sLa dame blanche[38] andÉdouard Lalo'sLe roi d'Ys.[39] In 1981, Knight played The Old Lady inLeonard Bernstein'sCandide, and the following year she sang the title role inThe Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at Southern Methodist University inDallas, Texas. Between 1984 and 1990, she sang Ruth inPirates, Buttercup inPinafore, and Katisha inThe Mikado for the summer opera seasons presented by The Lyric Opera of Dallas. In 1988 she appeared with the revived D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as Dame Carruthers inYeomen and the Fairy Queen inIolanthe, in which the criticArthur Jacobs said she sang and acted "with more richness and energy than ever".[40] Beginning in the 1990s, Knight toured in Gilbert and Sullivan productions with theCarl Rosa Opera Company.[8] In 1999, she sang Kabanicha inJanáček'sKatya Kabanova forOpera North.[41] During these years, Knight also performed regularly on the concert platform.[5]
Away from opera Knight's concert work in London includedRossini concerts in 1968 and 1978,[42]Haydn'sNelson Mass withIstván Kertész and theLondon Symphony Orchestra,[43] and Rossini'sStabat Mater, with the same forces in 1971,[44] andStravinsky'sLes Noces withBBC forces conducted byPierre Boulez in 1972.[45]
In recent years, Knight has performed several roles with the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company atThe International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, andPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.[46] She returned to the Royal Opera House in 2003 to sing inElektra.[47]
In 2004, Knight reprised the role of Ruth inPirates with theLyric Opera of Chicago. Chicago radio host Bruce Duffie, interviewing Knight after seeing that production noted, "Gillian Knight is one of those great personalities who simply go about their business season after season, giving splendid renditions of various roles, and adding luster to their home companies while not going far afield very often and, thus, passing up the opportunity for real world-wide stardom".[5] During that interview, Knight said, "I'm getting a bit controversial here, but there is a snobbish attitude towards Gilbert and Sullivan in the opera world.... I believe in excellence. Now I believe that if Gilbert and Sullivan is done well... then it is excellent, and it should be in a [major opera] house". She advised audiences, "Don't close your mind to anything because somebody has said, 'Oh, this is Gilbert and Sullivan,' or, 'This is modern music.' Just keep an open mind and you may be surprised at how much you get out of it".[5]
With the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company andDecca Records, she recorded Little Buttercup (1960), the Queen of the Fairies (1960), Lady Jane (1961), the Duchess of Plaza-Toro (1961), Dame Hannah (1962) and Dame Carruthers (1964).[48] She was also Kate in a 1966 BBC radio broadcast ofPirates and was the voice of Dame Hannah in the 1967Halas and Batchelor cartoon version ofRuddigore.[8]
Knight appeared as Ruth in the 1982 Brent Walker television production ofPirates. In 1989 she recorded seven roles in a BBC radio series of the operas: Lady Sangazure inThe Sorcerer, Buttercup, Lady Jane, Fairy Queen, Katisha, Lady Sophy inUtopia Limited, and the Baroness von Krakenfeldt inThe Grand Duke.[49] In 1993 she was Ruth in theWelsh National Opera recording ofPirates,[50] and in 1997 she was a soloist in a BBC 2 G&S concert broadcast fromCheltenham. Knight plays Katisha on the Carl Rosa 2001 video and CD recordings ofThe Mikado[51] and was a soloist on the Symposium CD recording of Sullivan'scantata,The Martyr of Antioch, from the 2000International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.[8]
Prominent among Knight's operatic recordings isMadama Butterfly (1978), in the role of Suzuki, oppositeRenata Scotto and Plácido Domingo, conducted byLorin Maazel for CBS/Sony.[52] Knight also appears in Maazel's recordings ofSuor Angelica (1975),[53]Il tabarro (1977), andLa Rondine (1983).[54]
Knight's other audio recordings includeMozart's masses, "Credo", "Coronation" and K427, conducted byColin Davis.[55] Her other opera recordings includeLa damnation de Faust (2001),[56] andDido and Aeneas (1971), conducted by Davis (1971);[57]La forza del destino (1977), conducted byJames Levine;[58]Moses und Aron (1975), conducted by Pierre Boulez;[59]Parsifal (1973)[60] andLa traviata (1995), conducted byGeorg Solti;[61]Rigoletto (1971), conducted byRichard Bonynge;[62] and ENO's Ring cycle, conducted byReginald Goodall, recorded live byEMI between 1973 and 1977 and released on CD byChandos Records in 2001.[63]
On video are the Covent Garden production ofSalome (1992) inPeter Hall's production,[64]The Cunning Little Vixen (1992), andLa traviata (1995).[29] She also appears in a wide range of specialist recordings for theReader's Digest, notably theTimeless Favourites series of 3-CD sets produced by Jay Productions between 1995 and 2000.[65] In a 2004 interview, Knight said, "I don't think I've ever been satisfied with a recording. I haven't played all my recordings. Some of them I haven't heard. I haven't seen... the video that I did of Salome from Covent Garden.... [P]erhaps when I'm not singing any more, I'll dig it out and watch it.... I listen and I'll think, 'Yes, but I could have done this or that'".[5]
