I am saddened to learn of the death of Dame Felicity Lott.
I never saw the English soprano live, and yet somehow from her recordings, performance videos, and vivacious interviews, I came to adore her. She seemed like a genuinely nice person and an inextinguishable spirit. Now, only days after revealing a terminal cancer diagnosis, she is gone.
“Flott,” as she was known to her colleagues and fans, earned her BA in French and Latin from Royal Holloway, University of London. During the course of her studies, she spent a year in France – and she certainly put it to good use, as she was always very much at home in French chansons.
She also excelled in Britten and Richard Strauss, in opera and recital, in drama and comedy. It seemed there was nothing she could not do well. Often, she performed in tandem with Graham Johnson, her accompanist since her student years.
Lott died on Friday at the age of 79. Only a few days before, she gave an interview on BBC Four, exuding her usual warmth, candor, humor and grace, in which she shared her terminal status. She said she had known about it for nearly a year.
“I’m just so happy at the moment,” she said. “I don’t want anybody to be sad, because I’m having a ball. I can’t understand it, because I’m not very well.
“I’ve known about being ill for almost a year and, my goodness, it was a shock. But here I am for a bit longer, and I’ve had time to look back and think, “Golly, you lucky thing… you’ve met all these wonderful people and had a wonderful life. You’ve been all over the world!”
Time and again, critics and admirers have cited the beauty and humanity of her characterization of the Marschallin in Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.”
Of her many recordings I have broadcast over the years, this is one of my favorites. Ernest Chausson’s “Poèmes de l’amour et de la mer” (“Poems of Love and the Sea”) incorporates two texts by Maurice Bouchor. The poems, “The Flowers of the Waters” and “The Death of Love,” are separated by a brief orchestral interlude.
Lott as Helen of Troy… with sheep!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KI_IhUEdTU
Everything on this album, “Felicity Lott s’amuse,” is a delight, as may be divined from her Satie. By coincidence, today is Satie’s birthday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmfrsUsRw1Q
Rest in peace, Dame Felicity.