Pauline Tinsley, outstanding and popular British soprano who was hailed as ‘a whirlwind’ on stage – obituary
Her Elektra for Welsh National Opera was praised for its ‘stamina, intensity and eloquence of voice and bearing’
Pauline Tinsley rehearsing Aida
Credit: Alamy
Pauline Tinsley, who has died aged 93, was a soprano with a voice of great stamina and penetration whose repertoire of more than 100 roles, ranging from Handel, Mozart and early Verdi to Strauss’s leading ladies and Janacek’s matriarchs, sustained her through 40 years on the opera stage.
Much of her early career was with Chelsea Opera and Welsh National Opera, where she was first seen in spring 1962 as a bright and pleasing Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The following season the company also cast her in a new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin. “So I sang Susanna on Tuesday and Thursday and Elsa on the Wednesday,” she said.