Joan Cross

Joan Cross CBE (7 September 1900 – 12 December 1993) was an English soprano, closely associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten.

Her Covent Garden performances included Mimi in La Bohème and Desdemona (to Lauritz Melchior's Otello) in 1934.

During this period she also became a noted Marschallin, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde, Elisabeth, Elsa, Madame Butterfly, Aida, Donna Anna and Tatiana.

The theatre reopened on 7 June 1945 with the première of Britten's Peter Grimes, in which work Cross created the leading female role of Ellen Orford.

Cross began directing opera in 1946, beginning with Der Rosenkavalier at Covent Garden and, in 1950, she staged La traviata for Sadler's Wells.