Margaret Valerie Masterson (born 3 June 1937) is a retired English opera singer, a lecturer, and Vice-President of British Youth Opera. After studying in Italy, she began to sing opera in Europe. Returning to England, Masterson performed as principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1964 to 1969, becoming popular with audiences and participating in several of the company's recordings, as well as those of Gilbert and Sullivan for All and the BBC.
She next joined English National Opera and went on to an international opera career lasting more than three decades. Although she performed a wide variety of roles, she was best known for her roles in the French repertoire and the works of Handel, as well as Gilbert and Sullivan. Her recordings include, in addition to many opera roles, operettas and musical theatre. She has been appointed a CBE and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music.
Early career and D'Oyly Carte Masterson was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, and studied at the Matthay School of Music (Liverpool) and at the Royal College of Music.Stone, David. "Valerie Masterson", Who Was Who in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company (1875–1982), accessed 10 May 2009 She received good reviews for her student performances. The Times commented on her "welcome freshness", though on another occasion it found fault with her attempt at a Scottish accent in a Robert Burns evening at the Wigmore Hall, calling it "more of Kensington than Kilmarnock". Nevertheless, the paper judged her "good to listen to" and "intelligent".The Times, 28 June 1961, p. 5; 20 December 1961, p. 7; and 30 May 1962, p. 5
She studied for a year in Milan with the soprano Adelaide Saraceni, but her most important teacher was the London-based tenor Eduardo Asquez.Asquez's other pupils included Marie Collier, Rosalind Plowright and Anthony Michaels-Moore. See obituary of Asquez by Elizabeth Forbes, The Independent, 1 October 1998 She made her debut as Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen in Salzburg with the Landestheatre Opera Company, where she spent a season in 1963 singing roles in Italian, French, and German operas.Eriksson, Erik. [ Valerie Masterson profile], AllMusic; accessed 14 May 2009 The following year, she returned to England, performing in concerts, including two Promenade Concerts with Sir Malcolm Sargent. She later recalled, "I remember Sir Malcolm Sargent plucking me out of the Royal College of Music to do some Proms as a student – can you imagine that happening nowadays? – and saying to me 'Your quiet singing will make your fortune'".Interview in The Gramophone, September 1999, p. 16 The music critics commended "a team of soloists led by a newcomer, Miss Valerie Masterson, with particularly pure and radiant soprano tone" in the Serenade to Music.The Times, 20 August 1964, p. 12Greenfield, Edward. The Guardian, 23 August 1964, p. 7; The Musical Times, October 1964, p. 753
Masterson joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a principal soprano in 1964. After a performance as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, The Guardian commented, "It is Valerie Masterson's Mabel that makes one revise ideas on D'Oyly Carte standards. It is a long time since the company had so strong a soprano lead." Other critics agreed: The Times criticised D'Oyly Carte vocal standards in 1968 but called Masterson and Kenneth Sandford "shining exceptions."The Times, 31 January 1968, p. 7 She remained with D'Oyly Carte for five years, where her major roles were Mabel; Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore; Phyllis in Iolanthe; Lady Psyche, and subsequently the title role, in Princess Ida; Yum-Yum in The Mikado; Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard; and Casilda in The Gondoliers. She appeared as Yum-Yum in the company's 1966 film version of The Mikado.Shepherd, Marc. . A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, 15 April 2009, accessed 16 July 2014 She left the company in 1969 but often returned for guest appearances.
Opera career
Masterson went on to become principal soprano with English National Opera, from 1971, singing a wide range of roles from Mozart to Wagner and Rossini to Puccini. Her successes there included Adèle in Rossini's Le comte Ory,Sadler's Wells programme booklet, 22 February 1972 Micaëla in Carmen,The Times, 4 August 1975, p. 6 Violetta in La traviata and the title role in Massenet's Manon ("exquisitely sung and acted"). Her many other roles there included Woglinde and the Woodbird in the RingSadler's Wells programme booklet, 24 February 1973; ENO programme booklet, 6 January 1976 and Sophie and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier.The Times, 29 January 1975, p. 14; ENO programme booklet, 12 January 1988 She made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut in 1974Warrack, John Hamilton and Ewan West. "Moody, Fanny", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, Oxford University Press, p. 324 (3rd Edition 1996), accessed 7 May 2012 and her French debut at Toulouse in 1975 as Manon.Gourret J. Dictionnaire des Cantatrices de l’Opéra. Editions Albatros, Paris, 1987. For three seasons, beginning in 1975, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, she sang a variety of roles, including "a memorable Matilde in Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra". Other early roles included Mimì in La bohèmeThe Musical Times, November 1977, p. 933 and Pamina in The Magic Flute.The Times, 25 November 1977, p. 11 She has sung in Strasbourg (Pamina), Rouen (Countess, Marriage of Figaro), and Toulouse (Violetta).
There followed starring roles, over a career lasting more than 30 years, in major opera houses around the world. Her repertory extended from the earliest operas to late 20th century works. At Covent Garden she created the role of May in Hans Werner Henze's 1976 premiere of We Come to the River,The Times, 13 July 1976, p. 11 and sang The Anne who Steals in Aulis Sallinen's 1984 opera The King Goes Forth to France, at the UK premiere on 1 April 1987.About the House, Summer 1987, p. 26. Of her 1983 Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, The Times wrote that Masterson "makes a sound so beautiful one wishes it could go on for ever. ... Life offers few pleasures like that of hearing Felicity Lott and Valerie Masterson singing on the same stage".Griffiths, Paul. "Marvellous display of vocal heroism – The Carmelites, Covent Garden", The Times, 20 April 1983, p. 17
She made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1978, as Marguerite in Faust,Harold Rosenthal. France: Masterson as Marguerite. Opera, March 1978, Vol. 29, No.3, pp. 302–303 next playing Fortune and Drusilla in Monteverdi's 1642 work, The Coronation of Poppea the same season.Charles Pitt. France : 'Poppea' triumphs at the Opéra. Opera, May 1978, Vol 29 No.5, p469-71.The Times, 20 March 1978, p. 7 She later sang Constanza in The SeraglioThe Times, 27 March 1980, p. 15 and Gilda in Rigoletto.The Times, 19 January 1985, p. 17 She also continued to have success in Mozart roles, including in Così fan tutte and Idomeneo. She sang both Susanna and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro,The Musical Times, July 1990, p. 380 appearing at the Prague National Theatre in 1993 as the Countess. She performed for two seasons at Geneva, including as Gilda in 1981 and Mireille later that year.Archives of the Grand Théâtre de Genève; accessed 12 November 2009. Masterson was a member of the English National Opera company that toured five cities in the U.S. in May and June 1984, singing Gilda.Programme book for English National Opera 1984 USA Tour. She also sang roles in The Merry Widow and Lucia di Lammermoor, among others.
Masterson played a significant part in the reintroduction of Handel's operas to the mainstream repertoire. Her purity of line and facility for ornamentation, coupled with excellent diction, helped to bring to life his works which, as recently as the 1960s, were considered unperformable.Griffiths, Paul. "Masterful Masterson – Semele, Covent Garden", The Times, 15 March 1982, p. 7, describing Masterson as "the main reason for seeing it" and praising "the golden, shimmering brilliance Miss Masterson achieves at the top of her range ... beautiful ease and exactness in some of Handel's most ornate music." In 1983, Masterson won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in the title role of Semele at Covent Garden. Her other Handel roles included Romilda in Xerxes for ENO,The Times, 6 March 1985, p. 15 Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare opposite Janet Baker for ENO and later for Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera,Mann, William. The Times, 6 December 1979, p. 11: "A feast of glorious singing in opulently inventive music"Boston Globe, 21 October 1989, p. 10The Times, 22 June 1982, p. 15 Berenice in Scipio for the Handel Opera Society at Sadler's Wells,The Times, 19 October 1972, p. 11 and Morgana in Alcina at Aix en Provence.The Times, 3 August 1978, p. 8 On the concert platform she sang the Queen of Sheba in Solomon.The Times, 14 April 1970, p. 20
Some of her greatest successes were in the French repertoire. Of her 1974 Manon for ENO, The Times commented, "The Coliseum has found a worthy successor to Elizabeth Harwood in the delectable form of Valerie Masterson, who has here her greatest success to date with the company. She looks at once charming, fragile and seductive, and she sings with light insouciance and easy forward tone."Blyth, Alan. The Times, 4 March 1974, p. 9 Her Marguerite in Gounod's Faust in Paris and London drew warm notices: "The jewel song has the girlish delight that Gounod wanted (but does not always get) delivered in the easy coloratura Miss Masterson first displayed in The Pirates of Penzance."The Times, 9 June 1983, p. 20 She sang Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet, in London and internationally,ENO programme booklet, 10 February 1983 Leila in The Pearl Fishers,ENO programme booklet, 12 October 1987 and the title role in Louise.ENO programme booklet, 26 November 1981
As a home-grown British soprano,Johnson, Lawrence A. Opera News. April 2000, p. 89 Masterson became popular with wider British audiences through frequent contributions to the popular radio series Friday Night is Music Night and the TV programme The Good Old Days. She also participated in television broadcasts of several Gilbert and Sullivan operas and live relays from English National Opera.
Honours and retirement As Vice-President (and former president) of British Youth Opera, Masterson continues to work with young singers. In 1988, Masterson was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. She was also made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1992.Valerie Masterson profile at the Jay Records website
Masterson continued to give master-classes and to lecture about singing and her career. She often spoke at the annual International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, and performed Yum-Yum in The Mikado at that festival in 1997. She is a Patron of the Carl Rosa Opera Company."Our Patrons". Carl Rosa Opera Company website, accessed 26 August 2010
An avid sportswoman and cooking enthusiast, she is married to former D'Oyly Carte principal flautist Andrew March.Memories of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, accessed 14 May 2009
Recordings