Jean Allister (26 February 1932 – 11 July 2012) was an opera singer who encompassed a wide range of repertoire both on stage and on the concert platform in a career spanning over 30 years.
[1] Her performance in the title role of The Italian Girl in Algiers at the 1961 St Pancras Arts Festival was hailed by Opera magazine: "a new coloratura mezzo, Jean Allister […] Her tone was rich and warm, and remained so right through the range, not growing hard at the top or fading at the bottom.
[1] For Glyndebourne Opera her roles included Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Arnalta in L'incoronazione di Poppea, also at the Proms in 1963, and Melide in Cavalli's L'Ormindo in 1968 which also toured to Ghent, Brussels, and Munich.
[6] She sang Queen Arete in Berkeley's Castaway at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 1967,[7] and as the nanny in the premiere of Gardner's The Visitors there in 1972, Musical Times pronounced her “outstanding”.
During the 1960s she recorded a significant number of roles in Sullivan operettas, such as The Mikado (Katisha) for EMI; and The Pirates of Penzance (Edith), Ruddigore (Mad Margaret), Utopia Ltd (excerpt - Lady Sophy) and The Sorcerer (Mrs. Partlet) for Decca.