Anne Edwards

Born in Builth Wells in 1930, Edwards trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She sang two roles with Welsh National Opera in their season at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London during the summer of 1957: Margherita in Boito's Mefistofele, for which she was perhaps not yet ready, and Anna, sister of the prophet Zaccariah in Nabucco, a small role that, incidentally, she later recorded. She joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company, singing roles such as Mimi, Nedda, Marguerite and also two Mozart roles, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. Edwards's future husband, Colin Courtney, was a clarinettist in the Carl Rosa Orchestra, and they were married in 1959. The Carl Rosa was nearing the end of its precarious existence because of lack of funds. Many of the singers were taken over by Sadler's Wells Opera (now English National Opera) and in December 1959 Edwards sang Mimi for them, followed by the Countess in January 1960. In August that year Carl Rosa gave a final season at the Prince's Theatre in London, and Edwards sang Donna Elvira, a role well suited to her temperament and to her growing dramatic involvement.