Elizabeth Bainbridge

Elizabeth Bainbridge (born 28 March 1930) is a retired English opera singer. Her career in singing spans several decades, the majority of her successes being achieved whilst being a member of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Bainbridge is a mezzo-soprano and contralto.

Bainbridge was born in Rawtenstall, Lancashire in the North of England. She left school at the age of 14; and after working in the weaving mills of Lancashire during the Second World War, she was able to pursue her great passion for singing.

Elizabeth Bainbridge made her singing debut at Glyndebourne in East Sussex in 1963 as the Third Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Her debut at Covent Garden was made the following year in Wagner's Die Walküre. She joined the company in 1965 and has since sung in over 1000 performances at the Royal Opera House. In 1966, she appeared in the first recording of Bernard Herrmann's opera Wuthering Heights, conducted by the composer.

Her son, Godfrey John, was born in 1954. She has two grandsons, Christopher John, born 1985, and Julian Robin, born 1990. She married the Jamaican Phillon Castell Morris in the 1970s. Mr. Morris died in 1988. Bainbridge is now fully retired from singing and lives in the Emsworth.