Rosalind Plowright was born in
Worksop,
Nottinghamshire, England, and studied at the
Royal Northern College of Music in
Manchester and at the
London Opera Centre.
Early career Plowright made her professional debut with
Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1975 as Agathe in
Der Freischütz. She sang Donna Elvira in
Don Giovanni and the Countess in
The Marriage of Figaro with the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1976 and 1977. Also in 1975, she appeared with both
Welsh National Opera and
Kent Opera before making her debut with
English National Opera as the Page in
Salome in 1976. She earned good notices in 1979 for her Fennimore in
Frederick Delius's
Fennimore and Gerda at London's Camden Festival.
International career In 1980, Plowright sang Manon Lescaut at
Torre del Lago, Aida and Ariadne in
Frankfurt, Ariadne in
Bern and Ortlinde at the
Royal Opera House. Her American operatic début was in
San Diego as Medora in the United States premiere of Verdi's
Il corsaro. Her debut at
La Scala came in 1983 when she sang
Suor Angelica. Since then, she has performed in major
opera houses and companies around the world including Covent Garden, Hamburg (from 1982), Madrid (from 1982), Verona (from 1985), the Paris Opera (from 1987), Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin,
Vienna State Opera, Athens, Rome (from 1990),
The Metropolitan Opera,
San Francisco Opera,
Arena di Verona, Florence,
La Fenice Venice, the
Liceu Barcelona,
Teatro Colón Buenos Aires and
Municipal Theater of Santiago. With
José Carreras, she sang
Andrea Chénier at Covent Garden and recorded
La forza del destino for
Deutsche Grammophon. With
Plácido Domingo she has performed
Il trovatore and
Die Walküre at Covent Garden. With
Luciano Pavarotti she performed
Aida at Covent Garden and a gala concert for 25,000 at the Arena of Verona. She sang
Cherubini's Medée at the Buxton Festival, Lyon, Lausanne, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Athens. Plowright also performed
Norma in Montpelier, Pittsburgh (1985), Lyon, Santiago di Chile and Paris (1987) and in Oviedo and Bonn (1988). Among the many conductors with whom she has worked are
Carlo Maria Giulini,
Riccardo Muti,
Claudio Abbado,
Zubin Mehta,
Giuseppe Sinopoli,
Wolfgang Sawallisch,
Bernard Haitink,
Antonio Pappano,
Michael Gielen,
Sylvain Cambreling,
Semyon Bychkov,
Seiji Ozawa,
Mark Elder,
Roger Norrington and
Giuseppe Patanè. She also gave recitals with
Geoffrey Parsons in over 20 international festivals. As an actress, Plowright has appeared as Grace Vosper in the
BBC series
The House of Eliott and with she played the part of Hermione Harefield in
Anglia Television's
The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous (1997), an adaptation of the
Jilly Cooper novel of the same name. As a theatre artist, Plowright has appeared in the new musical comedy ''Two's a Crowd''. In 1999 Plowright made her début as a mezzo-soprano as
Amneris in Aida with Scottish Opera. In 2002 and 2003 she performed two of
Cilea's operas with
Opera Holland Park Adriana Lecouvreur and L'Arlesiana. In 2003 she made her
Metropolitan Opera début as the Kostelnicka in
Jenufa. In the same year she returned to the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for
Sweeney Todd as The Beggar Woman. In 2004 she performed her first Mother in
Il Prigioniero in the Maggio Musicale in Firenze. In 2004/5 Plowright performed Fricka in
Das Rheingold and
Die Walkure in the new production of Wagner's
Ring at the Royal Opera House. In the 2007–8 season Plowright returned to Covent Garden as Fricka in the
Ring, appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as Gertrude in
Hänsel und Gretel and at the Paris Opera as the Mother in
Il prigioniero. In 2008-9 she performed her first Klytämnestra in
Elektra. In the 2010–11 season Plowright added the roles of Mme de Croissy in
Dialogues des Carmelites and La Contessa de Coigny and Maddelon in
Andrea Chenier in Stuttgart and in the Bregenz Festival. In the 2011–12 season, she added the roles of Mila's Mother in
Osud in Stuttgart and Herodias
Salome at Covent Garden. In 2012/13
Der fliegende Holländer at
La Scala, Milan and "
Suor Angelica" La zia Principessa in Seattle. In 2013/14 Herodias in
Salome in Portland Opera, Oregon, Mme de Croissy in
Dialogues des Carmélites in
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and Mrs. Sedley in
Peter Grimes for the Opera de Lyon and
Theater an der Wien in Vienna (December 2015).In 2016 Plowright performed Klytämnestra in
Keith Warner's new Elektra in Prague and later that year performed her first Old Baroness in Barber's
Vanessa at the
Wexford Festival. 2017 Saw her return to the Bayerische Staatsoper as La Contessa de Coigny in
Andrea Chenier and she created her first Kabanicha in
Katya Kabanova at the Berlin Staatsoper under
Sir Simon Rattle. The year ended with the
Opera North production of Six Little Greats where she performed Mila's Mother in Janáček's
Osud and Mamma Lucia in Mascagni's
Cavalleria Rusticana. In 2018, Plowright performed Mrs Sedley
Peter Grimes in the
Palau de les Arts, Valencia and made her
Glyndebourne Festival debut as The Old Baroness in
Vanessa in
Keith Warner's new production. The year ended with her first Madame de la Haltiere in
Jules Massenet's
Cendrillon in Nantes and Angers. == Awards ==