RIP Anne Pashley, 1935-2016

[Guest]

An obituary in today's Times for Anne Pashley, whom I remember from several ROH productions in the early 70s. A full life - she was an athlete, winning a silver medal in the 4x100 relay in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, before retraining as an opera singer. She made her Glyndebourne debut in 1962, sang Barbarina in the ROH in 1964 (under Solti, with Tito Gobbi and Joan Carlyle). She's on the Davis/Vickers Peter Grimes as the Second Niece, and [in spite of that ] sang at Aldeburgh in 1982.

Sadly I no longer have my ROH programmes from the 70s, but saw her several times, in supporting roles.

[VodkaDilc]

Sadly I no longer have my ROH programmes from the 70s, but saw her several times, in supporting roles.

A familiar name - and, being a member of the 'never throw anything away' brigade, I've just looked out my old ROH programmes from the period Richard has mentioned. It appears that I saw her in Peter Grimes as the Second Niece in 1971 under Colin Davis and in Figaro as Cherubino later the same year with the same conductor. With names like Geraint Evans (in both productions), Kiri Te Kanawa, Jon Vickers and Heather Harper in the same casts, this was a wonderful period for opera in London. (And pushing past lorryloads of cabbages on the way home added to the atmosphere.)

[french frank]

Goodness. I was trying to place the name and realise from Richard's OP that I still had her as an athlete - I had no idea that she had a second career as an opera singer. What achievements! And as VodkaDilc indicated she took her place with the greats: the Bruckner Te Deum with Barenboim, Robert Tear, Don Garrard and Birgit Finnilä.