Opera Scotland

Rae Woodland Suggest updates

Born Nottingham, 9 April 1922.

Died Ipswich, 12 December 2013.

English soprano.

Rae Woodland came to prominence singing at a local music festival in Yorkshire, where her parents ran a hotel. She studied privately under Roy Henderson, then in London, at the National Opera School.

Her debut in 1957 was with Sadler's Wells Opera as Queen of Night, and she worked with that company frequently thereafter, her parts ranging from Mozart (Konstanze) to Wagner (Venus). Roles at Glyndebourne included Mozart (Elettra), Verdi (Alice Ford), Puccini (Mimì), and Britten (Lady Billows), and she created the role of Lady Eugenie Jowler in The Rising of the Moon (Nicholas Maw 1970). She sang with the English Opera Group on its Russian visit in 1964 (Female Chorus) and returned as Elettra when Britten conducted a production of Idomeneo with Peter Pears in the title role.

At Covent Garden she first appeared in 1965, singing Lisa in La sonnambula with Sutherland and Pavarotti. In the early seventies she sang with Welsh National, as Alice Ford, Donna Elvira and Elettra. She first worked with Scottish Opera in its second season as Konstanze, returning as Lady Billows.