Heather Harper was born in Belfast and was one of the great British voices of the postwar era. Although she spent much of her professional life in London, her career quickly became international, spanning opera houses, concert halls, broadcasts, and a large recorded legacy. Her name became widely known in 1962, when, at just ten days’ notice, she stepped in for Galina Vishnevskaya for the world premiere of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at Coventry Cathedral. That opened the door to a long association with Britten’s music, alongside a repertoire that ranged from Mozart to Wagner and Richard Strauss. She was appointed CBE in 1965, and in later decades became a valued teacher—working at the Royal College of Music and with the Britten–Pears School—known for helping younger singers shape both technique and text.
In this post, Harper is singing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. I hope that you enjoy them.
(The first three poems are by Hermann Hesse)
Frühling
In dämmrigen Grüften
träumte ich lang
von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften,
von deinem Duft und Vogelsang.
Nun liegst du erschlossen
in Gleiß und Zier,
von Licht übergossen
wie ein Wunder vor mir.
Du kennest mich wieder,
du lockest mich zart,
es zittert durch all meine Glieder
deine selige Gegenwart!
September
Der Garten trauert,
Kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
Der Sommer schauert
Still seinem Ende entgegen.
Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt
Nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.
Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt
In den sterbenden Gartentraum.
Lange noch bei den Rosen
Bleibt er stehen, sehnt sich nach Ruh.
Langsam tut er die großen
Müdgewordnen Augen zu.
Beim Schlafengehen (On Falling Asleep)
Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht,
Soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
Freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
Wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.
Hände, laßt von allem Tun,
Stirn vergiß du alles Denken,
Alle meine Sinne nun
Wollen sich in Schlummer senken.
Und die Seele unbewacht
Will in freien Flügen schweben,
Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
Tief und tausendfach zu leben.
Im Abendrot (At Sunset)
Wir sind durch Not und Freude
Gegangen Hand in Hand,
Vom Wandern ruhen wir beide
Nun überm stillen Land.
Rings sich die Täler neigen,
Es dunkelt schon die Luft,
Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen
Nachträumend in den Duft.
Tritt her, und laß sie schwirren
Bald ist es Schlafenszeit,
Daß wir uns nicht verirren
In dieser Einsamkeit.
O weiter, stiller Friede!
So tief im Abendrot,
Wie sind wir wandermüde —
Ist das etwa der Tod? —
(This poem is by Joseph von Eichendorff)
Spring
In twilight crypts
I long dreamt
of your trees and blue skies,
of your scents and the songs of birds.
Now you lie visible
in glistening splendor,
flushed with light,
like a wonder before me.
You know me again,
you gently lure me;
all of my limbs quiver
from your blissful presence!
September
The garden mourns,
the rain sinks coolly into the flowers.
Summer shudders
as it quietly meets its end.
Leaf upon leaf drops golden
down from the lofty acacia tree.
Summer smiles, amazed and dull,
in the dying gardendream.
For a while still by the roses
it remains standing, longing for rest.
Slowly it closes its large
eyes that have grown weary.
Upon falling sleep
Now that the day has made me so tired,
my dearest longings should
be accepted kindly by the starry night
like a weary child.
Hands, cease your activity,
forehead, forget all of your thoughts;
all my senses now
want to sink into slumber.
And my soul, unobserved,
will soar in free flight
in the enchanted circle of the night,
living a thousandfold more deeply.
At Sunset
Through adversity and joy
We’ve gone hand in hand;
From wandering to peace we both
Now over the quiet land.
Around us incline the valleys,
The skies already grow dark;
Two larks alone are just climbing,
Nightdreaming into the scented air.
Come here and let them whir past,
Soon will it be time to rest;
So that we don’t get lost
In this loneliness.
O wide, quiet peace,
So deep in the sunset…
We are travel weary —
Is this perhaps – Death? —
Heather Harper
May 18, 930 – April 22, 2019
Heather Harper was one of the best loved and most respected singers of her generation. She graced the concert and opera stages of the world in roles that ranged from Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes – where her sympathy for the character drew a near-definitive portrayal – to the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier.
She came to international prominence in 1962 when she stepped in at 10 days’ notice to replace Galina Vishnevskaya, who had been detained by the Soviet authorities, in the first performance of Britten’s War Requiem alongside Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Peter Pears in Coventry Cathedral.
She was frequently invited to the Aldeburgh festival, singing and recording several roles in Britten operas – she created Mrs Coyle in the television opera Owen Wingrave (1970) and was acclaimed for her Governess in The Turn of the Screw for the English Opera Group (1972). In fact so regular a visitor was she to the festival that she bought a house there, without ever wishing to become part of the composer’s inner circle.
She appeared at the Bayreuth festival as Elsa in Lohengrin (1967-68), conducted by Rudolf Kempe, one of her favourite conductors, being described by one critic as a “shining, beautiful heroine”, well suited to the role. Because of the indisposition of Sándor Kónya, she sang opposite five different Lohengrins, guiding them through the production.
On the concert platform she was a regular and highly regarded participant in oratorios by Handel and Haydn, the Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, Britten’s Les Illuminations and Our Hunting Fathers, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the Delius Requiem and works by Vaughan Williams and others. In 1972 she was the soprano soloist in the premiere of Tippett’s Third Symphony.
Born in Belfast, Heather was the daughter of Hugh, a lawyer, and his wife, Mary (nee Robb), who were keen amateur musicians and encouraged all four of their children to play the piano from the age of four. Two of her siblings also went on to become professional musicians: her sister, Alison, who was a cellist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and her brother, Ian, who was principal horn with the Royal Philharmonic and English Chamber orchestras, and that of the Royal Opera House.
Harper won a piano scholarship to the Trinity School of Music in London and also studied violin and viola there. When the opportunity to take up singing presented itself, she won a second scholarship a year later.
She then became a member of the Ambrosian Singers while studying with Helene Isepp, whom she credited as having formed her as a singer. At this time she also joined the BBC Chorus (now the BBC Singers) and the George Mitchell Singers, with whom she enjoyed performing close harmony arrangements.
Her career was launched when Isepp recommended her to Jack Westrup for his Oxford University Opera Club production of Verdi’s Macbeth in 1954. Her performances in the role of Lady Macbeth were critically acclaimed and led to an invitation to sing Violetta in La Traviata in a TV production in 1956 as well as Mimì in La Bohème. After that she appeared frequently on TV.
Technically self-confident and with a sharp intellect, she was forthright with colleagues and could be merciless with pupils. Unafraid of tyrannical maestros, she gave as good as she got with the likes of Karl Böhm or Georg Solti. As a composer, Otto Klemperer dedicated a series of lieder to her.