Yvonne Minton commenced her vocal studies with Marjorie Walker in Sydney and at eighteen won the Elsa Stralia Scholarship to study at the Sydney Conservatorium. Minton also won numerous singing competitions, notably the Australian National Eisteddfod in Canberra, which is open to singers from all over Australia and New Zealand, and also sang frequently on both radio and television for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and with the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.

In 1961 Minton left Australia for England, settling in London where she studied with Henry Cummings and Joan Cross. After winning the Kathleen Ferrier Prize for the best contralto at the International Vocalist Competition at ’s-Hertogenbosch in Holland, she made her operatic stage debut in 1964 as Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at the City Literary Institute in London, in the same year creating the part of Maggie Dempster in Nicholas Maw’s opera One Man Show. During 1965 she appeared in a BBC Television production of Gianni Schicchi with Tito Gobbi, as well as in the Glyndebourne production of Dido and Aeneas especially mounted for broadcast by the BBC.

Minton first sang with the Covent Garden (later Royal) Opera Company, with which she was closely associated throughout her career, in 1965, as Lola / Cavalleria rusticana. Initially she sang smaller roles in operas such as Suor Angelica (The Mistress of Discipline), Moses und Aaron (Virgin) and Die Walküre (Schwertleite), before gaining excellent reviews as Marina / Boris Godunov opposite Boris Christoff, all in 1965. Soon Minton graduated to other major parts, singing Helen / King Priam in 1967; Octavian / Der Rosenkavalier and Mistress Page / Falstaff in 1968; and Dorabella / Così fan tutte, Orfeo / Orfeo ed Eurydice and Geneviève / Pelléas et Mélisande, all in 1969. The following year she created the role of Thea in Tippett’s The Knot Garden and in 1974 sang a superb Sesto / La clemenza di Tito.

By now Minton was firmly established internationally, having made her debut as Sesto in 1969 at the Cologne Opera, where she sang frequently, and at La Scala, Milan and the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1970. She appeared as Dalila / Samson et Dalila at the Israel Festival in 1972 and during the 1972– 1973 season sang with The Australian Opera. She first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York as Octavian in 1973 (returning to sing the same role in 1977) and also sang Octavian at the Paris Opera in 1976 and the Salzburg Festival in 1978 and 1979. At the Bayreuth Festival in 1974 Minton sang Brangäne / Tristan und Isolde, repeating this role in 1975 and 1976 (under Carlos Kleiber) and in 1977. Other Bayreuth parts included Fricka / Der Ring des Nibelungen (1976) and Waltraute / Götterdämmerung (1976, 1977). At the Paris Opera she created a powerful Countess Geschwitz in the first performance of Cerha’s completion of Berg’s Lulu under Pierre Boulez in 1979.

Later roles at Covent Garden included Waltraute (1976), the Composer / Ariadne auf Naxos (1976), Dido / Les Troyens (1977), Kundry / Parsifal (1979), Brangäne (1982) and Charlotte / Werther (1983). Following a brief period of retirement Minton returned to the operatic stage in character roles such as Leokadia Begbick / Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Florence, 1990); Klytaemnestra / Elektra (Adelaide, 1991); Kabanicha / Kát’a Kabanová (Paris 1993) and Madame Larina / Eugene Onegin (Glyndebourne, 1994). Her last appearance at the Royal Opera House was as the Countess von Helfenstein / Mathis der Maler (1995).

Tall and statuesque, Minton cut a striking figure on stage. Her voice was immediately attractive and she always sang with great intensity of feeling, which made her especially suitable for roles where the character is under great emotional pressure. This characteristic also made her an ideal singer in concert, in works such as Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Extremely active as a concert singer, Minton performed and recorded many notable works by Mahler with Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1980.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).