Jean Allister (26 February 1932 – 11 July 2012) was an opera singer who encompassed a wide range of repertoire both on stage and on the concert platform in a career spanning over 30 years.[1]
Allister was born inBallymoney. She studied underNorman Allin at theRoyal Academy of Music and her early roles included Mistress Quickly at the Academy in 1954, and parts inElijah at theRoyal Festival Hall, and Handel'sBelshazzar at theFoundling Hospital in July 1955. She married her fellow student the tenor Edgar Fleet in 1955 and they worked together in several performances including Britten'sSpring Symphony at the Royal Academy andAbraham and Isaac at theRoyal Court Theatre.[1] They had one son together.
She became a member of theAmbrosian Singers where among fellow altos she sang alongsidePamela Bowden,Heather Harper andHelen Watts.[1] From 1959 to 1970, she sang in fifteen Proms concerts at theRoyal Albert Hall, includingHenze'sNovae de Infinito Laudes with the composer in 1965 and Beethoven'sChoral Symphony underSargent in 1966,[2] and at theThree Choirs Festivals she appeared from 1961 to 1977, where she participated in the British premiere ofMartin'sIn Terra Pax in 1960 and the same composer'sRequiem in 1975.[1]
Her performance in the title role ofThe Italian Girl in Algiers at the 1961St Pancras Arts Festival was hailed byOpera magazine: "a new coloratura mezzo, Jean Allister […] Her tone was rich and warm, and remained so right through the range, not growing hard at the top or fading at the bottom. She showed a sense of the stage, a good feeling for phrase, and acceptable divisions. She offered in all ways a delightful impersonation of Rossini's resourceful heroine, and each of the arias made its proper effect".[3]
In May 1961, Allister took one of the sixteen lines in Vaughan Williams'sSerenade to Music atCharles Groves' farewell concert with theBournemouth Symphony Orchestra and later sang Mahler'sSymphony of a Thousand under him at the Proms in 1964.[1]
ForGlyndebourne Opera her roles included Dryade inAriadne auf Naxos, Arnalta inL'incoronazione di Poppea, also at the Proms in 1963, and Melide in Cavalli'sL'Ormindo in 1968 which also toured to Ghent, Brussels, and Munich.[4] In 1966, Allister was described as “admirable” as the rag-picker inIl tabarro forWelsh National Opera.[5] In Handel'sScipio in Hanover in 1970, Jean Allister sang Lucejo withCharles Farncombe conducting.[6]
She sang Queen Arete inBerkeley'sCastaway at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 1967,[7] and as the nanny in the premiere ofGardner'sThe Visitors there in 1972, Musical Times pronounced her “outstanding”.[8] Her final stage appearance was as Grandmother Buryjovka in theEnglish National Opera North production ofJenůfa in Leeds in 1980. Following this, she taught privately and at the Leeds City College of Music, and lived in the city with her second husband, René Atkinson.[1]
Allister edited the bookSing Solo Soprano, published by Oxford University Press in 1986.
She died inChurch Crookham, aged 80.
During the 1960s she recorded a significant number of roles inSullivan operettas, such asThe Mikado (Katisha) for EMI; andThe Pirates of Penzance (Edith),Ruddigore (Mad Margaret),Utopia Ltd (excerpt - Lady Sophy) andThe Sorcerer (Mrs. Partlet) for Decca.[9] In February 1963 she also took part in recordings of selections fromThe Gondoliers,HMS Pinafore,Iolanthe,The Mikado,Patience andThe Pirates of Penzance with theRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra underJames Walker forReader's Digest, in which her first husband Edgar Fleet also took part.[9]
