Josephine Barstow’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Intro Singer
Is Singer 
Opera singer 
Musician 
Performing artist 
From United Kingdom 
Type Arts 
Music 
Gender female
Birth 27 September 1940, Sheffield, United Kingdom
Age: 79 years
Star sign Libra
Family
Spouse: Terry Hands 
Education
University of Birmingham
Awards
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire  
Instruments:
Voice

Dame Josephine Clare Barstow, DBE (born 27 September 1940) is an English opera singer and soprano.

Education and early career

Josephine Barstow was born in Sheffield and educated at the University of Birmingham. She made her professional debut (Mimì in La bohème) with the touring company Opera for All in 1964. She won a scholarship to study during 1965-66 at the London Opera Centre, where she met her husband Ande Anderson (d. 1996). During the following season, she sang Gluck’s Euridice and Verdi’s Violetta for the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company and in 1968 she began a three-year contract with Welsh National Opera. In 1969 she made her Royal Opera debut as one of the nieces in Peter Grimes

Subsequent career

Among other roles with the Royal Opera, she has sung Alice Ford (Falstaff), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, Leonore (Fidelio) and the Old Countess (The Queen of Spades). She also appeared in the world premières of two operas by Sir Michael Tippett:
The Knot Garden (as Denise) and The Ice Break (as Gayle).

At Glyndebourne, she has appeared as Lady Macbeth, Elettra (Idomeneo) and Leonore. Roles with English National Opera include an acclaimed Violetta, Emilia Marty (The Makropulos Case), Natasha in the British stage première of War and Peace and the title roles in Salome, Aida, Arabella, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Der Rosenkavalier. Rehearsals for Salome and an interview with Barstow were featured in a December 1975 episode of the BBC television programme Arena.

Among other engagements outside the British Isles, she has appeared at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Vienna State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. Latterly, she has performed a number of roles with Opera North, including Alice Ford, Lady Macbeth, Kostelnicka in Jenůfa, Marie in Wozzeck, Lady Billows in Albert Herring and in the title roles of Gloriana, Médée and Aida.

On 22 March 1986 Barstow reprised her role as Salome, this time at the Seattle Opera House, performing the Dance of the Seven Veils. She danced a choreography by Mark Morris, wearing a costume designed by Sarah Nash Gates, involving the literal removal of seven veils. At the end of the number Barstow was wearing only a G-string.

On 16 November 1986 Barstow performed an opera gala night for Opera North with David Lloyd Jones as conductor.

In October 2011 she appeared as the Countess in The Queen of Spades, also with Opera North.

Barstow plays Heidi Schiller in the National Theatre’s 2017 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies.

Personal life

Barstow was married to Terry Hands from 1964 to 1967, and then to Ande Anderson from 1968 until his death in 1996.

Selected recordings

CDs

  • Albert Herring (conductor Steuart Bedford), 1996, Naxos
  • Un ballo in maschera (conductor Herbert von Karajan), 1989, DG
  • Gloriana (conductor Charles Mackerras), 1993, Decca
  • The Knot Garden (conductor Colin Davis), 1974, Philips
  • Kiss Me, Kate (conductor John McGlinn), EMI
  • Oliver! (conductor John Owen Edwards), JAY Records
  • Street Scene (conductor John Mauceri), 1991, Decca
  • Opera Finales (Salome, Médée, The Makropulos Affair, Turandot) (conductor John Mauceri), 1990, Decca

DVDs

  • Un ballo in maschera (conductor Sir Georg Solti), 2005, TDK
  • Gloriana (conductor Paul Daniel), 2000, Opus Arte
  • Idomeneo (conductor John Pritchard), 1974, Arthaus Musik
  • Macbeth (conductor John Pritchard), 1972, Arthaus Musik
  • Owen Wingrave (conductor Kent Nagano), 2001, Arthaus Musik

Honours

Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1985 New Year Honours, Josephine Barstow was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours.

Dame Josephine Barstow is currently represented by Musichall Ltd.

You May Also Like

John Woo’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

John Woo Net Worth: John Woo is a Hong Kong film director, writer and producer who has a net worth of $60 million dollars. A director, producer, writer, and editor, John Woo is most widely recognized for his brand of “operatic” action films. His films, which have been produced in both Hong Kong and the US, have been hugely popular, and include such hits as, “A Better Tomorrow”, “Hard Boiled”, “Face/Off”, and “Mission Impossible 2”. Born Wu Yu-Sheng on October 1946, in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, he acquired critical acclaim as an international Chinese film director and producer, especially for his influence on the action genre. Woo’s career beginnings date back to 1969 when he was hired as a script supervisor at Cathay Studios. Three years later, he continued to hone his directing skills as an assistant director at Shaw Studios, working under the tutorship of noted director Chang Cheh. He finally got the chance to make his directorial debut in 1974 with the movie The Young Dragons. He has since directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), Hard Boiled (1992) and Red Cliff (2009). In the meantime, he successfully managed to pursue a Hollywood career creating features like Hard Target (1993), Broken Arrow (1996), Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible II (2000). Furthermore, he was the creator of the comic series Seven Brothers, published by Virgin Comics in 2006. Although by the mid-1980s he experienced professional burnout, John Woo has successfully re-established himself in the movie industry and went further to cement his status as a notable director.
Read More