Felicity Lott

English opera soprano and recitalist.
Born May 8, 1947 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK.
Died May 15, 2026 in East Sussex, England, UK.
Dame Felicity Ann Emwhyla Lott DBE FRAM FRCM was among the most distinguished British sopranos of her generation, praised for the clarity and warmth of her voice and acclaimed above all for her performances in operas and orchestral songs by Richard Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She was equally celebrated as a recitalist, with a particular affinity for French mélodies, German Lieder, and the English art song repertoire.
Lott studied French and Latin at Royal Holloway College, University of London, and then trained as a singer at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She met pianist Graham Johnson while still a conservatory student, beginning a lifelong musical partnership. Her professional operatic debut came at the City of London Festival in 1974. In 1975 she made her debut with a major company, singing Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the English National Opera. She performed at the Glyndebourne Festival in every season from 1976 to 1990, returning again in 1998 and 2002, taking on roles including Anne in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Elle in Poulenc's La Voix humaine, and Helena in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, alongside a wide range of Mozart and Strauss roles.
Lott became particularly associated with the role of the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the 1990-91 season in that role, with Carlos Kleiber conducting. In 1994 she appeared again with Kleiber in a celebrated run of performances at the Vienna State Opera, recorded by Austrian television. She also performed the Countess in Strauss's Capriccio internationally, including at Carnegie Hall (1986) and the Metropolitan Opera, and made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Mozart's Countess in Le nozze di Figaro in 1987. She appeared over many years at the Royal Opera in London, the Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, and many other major houses.
In 1976, Lott co-founded the Songmakers' Almanac with Graham Johnson, Ann Murray, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, and Richard Jackson, a performing ensemble dedicated to themed recitals of art songs. She and Johnson recorded extensively for Hyperion Records, including complete song cycles by Poulenc, Fauré, Gounod, Hahn, Chabrier, and Schubert. For Chandos Records she recorded the complete orchestral Lieder of Richard Strauss with the Scottish National Orchestra under Neeme Järvi. A recording of Haydn's Nelson Mass on which she appeared as soloist received a Grammy Award in 1986. In later career she sang Heidi Schiller in Stephen Sondheim's Follies in London's West End in 2019 and gave her final opera performances at the Paris Opera in 2024, as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment. Her final solo recital was in Paris in May 2025.
Lott was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996. She received the Légion d'Honneur in 2001, was named Bayerische Kammersängerin in 2003, and received the International Classical Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and Gramophone magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. She was a long-standing supporter of Wigmore Hall and served on its board.