One of the most admired British singers of her generation, Felicity Lott has enjoyed success in the fields of opera, the concert hall and the recital hall, winning special praise for her prodigious recital work and recordings of song in several languages: linguistically, her French is of native quality. Born in Cheltenham in 1947, she began her musical education aged five, with singing lessons from the age of 12. Studying French and Latin at Royal Holloway College, she spent a year in France before moving on to the Royal Academy of Music. As a founder member of the song specialist and pianist Graham Johnson’s The Songmaker’s Almanac, she quickly gained a reputation as an exponent of a wide range of song, with French mélodie arguably to the fore. Making her operatic debut as Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute at the English National Opera in 1975, she was soon regularly appearing with the main British companies, and then those further afield, specialising in roles by Mozart and Richard Strauss, as well as a number of French composers, including operettas by Offenbach which she played with an acute sense of style. Among her many honours have been her appointment as a Dame of the British Empire and a Légion d’honneur (both in 1996), Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera (2003), and the Wigmore Hall Medal (2010) in recognition of her contribution to that venue. Her many recordings exhibit her excellence over her extraordinary breadth of repertoire.