Felicity Lott, who has died aged 79 of cancer, enchanted audiences with a succession of Strauss and Mozart roles that she might have been born to sing. The mellifluous tone with just a hint of metal to give it that lustrous gleam, the effortlessly floated high notes, pin-sharp diction and captivating stage presence all combined to make her one of the most endearingly popular sopranos of her day.
At Glyndebourne she was a particular favourite, appearing every season from 1976 until 1990 and then again in 1998 and 2002. In addition to Strauss and Mozart roles she sang those of Anne in The Rake’s Progress, Elle in La Voix Humaine and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream there.
It was in Handel that she distinguished herself in her early professional career, singing Seleuce in Tolomeo and the title role in Arianna in Creta for Unicorn Opera at Abingdon (1973), followed by Mozart’s Donna Elvira and Fiordiligi for Leicester University Opera. Then came a lucky break when she jumped in as Pamina for a Magic Flute at English National Opera in 1975, scoring such a success that she was invited to repeat the role several times for the company both on tour and at the Coliseum, later singing it at Glyndebourne. She was then engaged by ENO to sing Natasha in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, followed by Roxane in Szymanowski’s King Roger.
An increasing number of 20th-century roles began to enter her repertory, including a small part in Henze’s We Come to the River, Jenifer in Tippett’s A Midsummer Marriage for Welsh National Opera and the Helena and Anne Trulove for Glyndebourne.
The first of the Strauss roles was the Countess Madeleine in Capriccio, for the Glyndebourne tour (1976). Returning as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier in 1980, she began to make her mark as an exceptional Straussian, her poised, elegant figure perfectly incarnating the characters she represented. Next came Christine Storch, the wife of the composer Robert Storch in Intermezzo. Sung in English in Andrew Porter’s translation, the performance enabled Lott to demonstrate contrasting character traits in close juxtaposition: the doting marital partner seen at her most sentimental in the scene with her son Bubi that closes Act I and the feisty termagant, depicting in somewhat questionable taste Strauss’s own wife, Pauline. She carried it off triumphantly, helping to establish a firmer place in the repertory for one of Strauss’s more neglected operas.
The next Strauss role, Arabella, should have followed, again at Glyndebourne, in 1984, but had to be postponed for a year on account of Lott’s pregnancy. This was another role in which she relished developing contrasting traits of the character: what she called “the flirty side” as well as “the more serious aspects”.
Two years later she successfully essayed the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in Brussels, repeating it a few months later at Covent Garden. This was a role which she was to take to the leading houses in Madrid, Munich, Paris, New York and Vienna, achieving, especially in performances under Carlos Kleiber, a high level of artistry. At this time too, she was able to improve her command of German, while working for six weeks in Munich on a production of Intermezzo in the original language.
In the late 1980s began an even more accomplished phase in her career, initiated, she believed, by her American stage debut in Chicago as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, singing alongside such stars as Ruggero Raimondi, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade and Maria Ewing. Her self-confidence was also much improved on this visit when she was assured by a Chicago optometrist that she could wear contact lenses. Short-sighted from the age of two, she had always felt disadvantaged on stage and the second night of that Figaro – the first on which she had clear vision – was in her opinion a game-changer.
Born in Cheltenham, Felicity was the daughter of Whyla (Emwhyla, nee Williams) and John Lott, who ran an accountancy firm. Her parents were keen amateur musicians, but although she played the piano and violin from an early age, as well as singing in a church choir, she had no original intention of taking up a musical career, partly, as she later recalled, lacking the confidence.
She nevertheless had singing lessons while attending what is now Royal Holloway, University of London, in Egham, Surrey, where she gained a degree in French and Latin (1969). Further vocal lessons while studying in Grenoble for a few months persuaded her that she should after all consider a singing career, and she then entered the Royal Academy of Music for four years.
Her early Handel roles included Cleopatra in the first complete version in modern times of Giulio Cesare at the Barber Institute, Birmingham (1977). This led to an invitation from Alan Curtis to sing the title role of L’Incoronazione di Poppea at La Monnaie in Brussels, which was followed by Gluck’s Eurydice for Scottish Opera and Mozart for Kent Opera and Welsh National Opera.
Her Britten roles included Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and the Governess in Turn of the Screw. She also made a brief foray into Wagner with Eva in Die Meistersinger in Brussels in 1984, subsequently taking the role elsewhere, including Covent Garden in 1990, but ultimately felt more secure in her beloved Strauss and Mozart roles.
Operetta provided another vehicle for her acting talent, and she made successful appearances in The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus and works by Offenbach. An engaging presence on the concert stage, she excelled in French mélodies, German lieder and English song, and with orchestra in Strauss’s Four Last Songs. She was a founder member of Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ Almanac, and gave duet recitals with the mezzo-soprano Ann Murray and baritone Thomas Allen.
Her rendition with Murray of the Cat Duet, wrongly attributed to Rossini, at the Last Night of the Proms in 1996, had the two vying for supremacy over a damehood (Lott had been made DBE earlier that year) and size of bouquet with mock-ferocious feline spite. It brought the house down.
She married the writer on music Robin Golding in 1973; their marriage was dissolved in 1982. Two years later she married the actor Gabriel Woolf, and he survives her, along with their daughter, Emily.
• Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott, soprano, born 8 May 1947; died 15 May 2026
