Born in
Fleetwood,
Lancashire, Rigby studied at the
Birmingham School of Music and the
Royal Academy of Music. She made her debut with the
English National Opera in 1977. She has sung with the
Royal Opera and has been for many years a regular guest at the
Glyndebourne Festival. At the 2008 Glyndebourne festival, she created the role of Martina Laborde in
Peter Eötvös' opera
Love and Other Demons. In the field of concert music, she has been a frequent soloist at the
BBC Proms. Her recordings include the role of Maddalena in the English-language RIGOLETTO (EMI/Angel), based on Jonathan Miller's "gangster" production for ENO. She is an opera coach at the Royal Academy of Music and a Patron of
Bampton Classical Opera. She was a member of the jury for the company's Young Singers' Competition in 2019. ==References==