Canadian soprano had `silvery' voice

Erin Wall, who has died of breast cancer aged 44, was a Canadian-born soprano who was a finalist in the 2003 Cardiff Singer of the World competition, a moving soloist in Verdi's Requiem on the closing night of the 2013 Edinburgh Festival, and a noble Jenifer in a Proms performance of Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage that same year.

Wall's appearance in Massenet's opera Thais at Edinburgh in 2011 was a musical revelation. “She uncorked a voice in its prime: luscious pianissimos, but also a magnificent high D shaking all available chandeliers in the Festival Theatre,” observed one critic.

Wall insisted that the music of Mahler and Strauss lay at the heart of her repertoire. “I joke that they're my other husbands,” she told Broadway World. “Or sometimes I say, they're my boyfriends, because I'm already married. My dead boyfriends.” The title role in Strauss's Arabella was a favourite, with Wall identifying with the character's “fun, chatty, flirty moments.”

Erin Marie Wall was born in Calgary on Nov. 4, 1975. Raised in Vancouver, she learned the piano and flute but took her first voice lessons in her final year of high school. After being rejected by every music college she applied to, including some that advised a different career, she worked on her voice for another year and tried again with more success.

In July 2002, she made her British debut in Britten's War Requiem at St. Paul's Cathedral.

At the Singer of the World competition, critics said she was a “platinum-class” soprano with a “stylish, silvery and fine-grained” voice.

Wall's big break came at Chicago Lyric Opera, where she spent the early years of her career. In 2004 she was understudying the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni when Finnish soprano Karita Mattila was taken ill the day before opening night. “I had a costume fitting and a sing-through,” she recalled breezily. Thereafter she appeared in opera houses and concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic.

Like many singers, she grew used to performing while not at her best, often rehearsing with jet lag. She sang through two pregnancies, the sleep-deprived early years of parenthood, a miscarriage and after falling down a flight of stairs. She continued to sing during cancer treatment, describing her concerts as “taking a vacation from cancer world.”

Wall, who completed a New York marathon on her 43rd birthday, is survived by her husband, Roberto Mauro of the Canadian Opera Company; two children; her parents; and her sister.

Erin Wall