MARILYN HILL SMITH

Soprano
Marilyn, now Mrs Daye, was Smith when at school and the Hill was added when she joined Equity, to produce the stage name. Marilyn's work encompasses a wide and varied repertoire ranging from early French Opera at the Palais de Versailles to Gilbert and Sullivan at the Hollywood Bowl, and everything else between!
She has sung principal roles with the English National Opera, where she made her debut, with the Welsh National Opera, the Royal Opera both at Covent Garden and in Los Angeles, the Canadian Opera in Toronto, the Lyric Opera of Singapore, the Penang Festival Opera, the New Sadlers Wells Opera and the Carl Rosa Opera Company.

With Scottish Opera and later at the Old Vic, she sang the role of Cunegonde in Jonathan Miller’s production of Candide, which was televised and won the Olivier Award for 'Best Musical'. She also made guest appearances with the new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on their British tours and in Los Angeles and has been closely associated with the English Bach Festival for whom she has performed roles in works by Handel, Monteverdi, Purcell, Rameau and Bach. She has performed in concert, oratorio and opera in many major European Festivals, including Aldeburgh, Camden, Belfast, Paris, Cologne Granada and Rome as well as the BBC Proms in The Royal Albert Hall. Recitals have taken her as far afield as Zimbabwe and Brazil, and she sings regularly on P&O and Swan Hellenic cruiseships. Her award-winning recordings of operetta and Ivor Novello continue to be acclaimed worldwide.
In London’s West End, she has performed in several Royal Gala charity performances at the Palladium, starred in an Ivor Novello gala at the newly renamed Novello Theatre, and featured in a birthday tribute to Stephen Sondheim at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She recently completed a 20-month tour around the UK as Mother Abbess in the David Ian/Lloyd Webber production of “The Sound of Music”, receiving ecstatic press reviews.
Last year, she performed in an exciting new production of Sondheim’s 'Follies' in Toulon.
Marilyn has been a particular favourite with listeners of BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night, appearing in a record 106 programmes. She also has experience in pantomime, most recently as the Fairy Godmother and the Wicked Queen, and enjoys regular appearances in music hall, including Leeds City Varieties, having worked in one of the last televised 'Good Old Days'. In her spare moments, Marilyn enjoys teaching and giving master classes, and is an adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festival.

The Ivor Novello Appreciation Bureau: Marilyn is our Patron and continues to support our work for Ivor, she will be appearing in concerts for the bureau in 2016.

 

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