In memoriam: Victoria Sladen

In her brief career that lasted a mere seven years, the soprano Victoria Sladen enjoyed much success as both a recitalist and concert singer. Possessing a warm, full tone, a strong stage presence and attractive appearance, she sang Butterfly more than 150 times. She was also a firm favourite at the Proms, and was wellknown for her performances in Verdi's Requiem with the Royal Choral Society

Born into a German family that had settled in London, Victoria May Schlageter attended a Convent School before earning her living as a typist, with singing reserved as a spare-time occupation. A scholarship subsequently took her to Trinity College of Music, but her dissatisfaction with the training offered her led to the bold step of her taking lessons in Berlin, whence she was forced to return following the outbreak of war in 1939. A Wigmore Hall recital was well received, but led to no engagements, despite a change of name to Sladen. She undertook a number of roles in pantomime and variety before moving into opera, where she made her debut as Giulietta in The tales of Hoffman at the Strand Theatre, with Peter Pears, who was also making his operatic debut, in the title role. In 1943, there followed her Sadler's Wells debut as Butterfly Peter Pears again being her tenor partner. In 1947, Sladen moved to Covent Garden, singing Eva in Die Meistersinger, Octavian in Rosenkavalier, Butterfly, and Micaela in Carmen. For Sir Thomas Beecham, who admired her extensive range of two-and-a-half octaves, she sang a memorable Brangaene in Tristan and Isolde for a 1940s radio broadcast. Other radio performances

of opera included Lisa in The queen of spades, and the first performance of Robert Gerhard's The duenna.

Victoria Sladen gave up her professional career in 1952. The previous year she published her autobiography Singing my way, a vivid account of the pleasures and pains of a singing career in the 1940s. Victoria Sladen: born Kilburn, London,

24 May 1910; died September 1999.