Shuard was born in
London. After studying at the
Trinity College of Music, she had lessons from
Eva Turner. In 1948 the
Worshipful Company of Musicians awarded her a prize and she toured
South Africa as the organization's representative. She returned there in 1949 to make her operatic debut, in
Johannesburg, in the title role of
Verdi's
Aida; during that season she also sang Giulietta in
The Tales of Hoffmann and Venus in
Tannhäuser. She sang at
Sadlers Wells from 1949 to 1953, before undertaking more study in Milan with
Rosetta Pampanini, and then at
Covent Garden from 1954 until her death. She also sang at
Bayreuth,
La Scala, Vienna, Buenos Aires and San Francisco. Her notable roles included the title roles in
Káťa Kabanová (in the 1951 United Kingdom premiere),
Jenůfa (in the 1956 UK premiere),
Les Troyens (1957)
, Carmen,
Tosca,
Turandot,
Elektra,
Madama Butterfly and
Aida; as well as Santuzza in
Cavalleria rusticana, Eboli in
Don Carlos, Tatyana in
Eugene Onegin, Magda Sorel in
The Consul, Lady Macbeth (in the first production of Verdi's
Macbeth at Covent Garden), and Kostelnička Buryjovka in
Jenůfa in 1972 and 1974. The latter part of the career saw her essay
Wagnerian roles, and she was the first English soprano to sing Brünnhilde at Covent Garden. She also sang
Isolde at Geneva, as well as Sieglinde and Kundry.
San Francisco was the principal place she appeared on stage in the
United States, firstly as Brünnhilde in
Die Walküre in October 1963, then in 1966 as Elektra, 1968 as Turandot, and finally as Brünnhilde in
Götterdämmerung in 1969. She also appeared as Kat'a Kabanova at New York's Empire Music Festival in 1960. In 1948, she married Dr Peter Asher. Amy Shuard was appointed a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1966. She died in 1975, aged 50. == Recordings ==