Ann Watt
Canadian lyric soprano who was compared to Betty Grable
ANN WATT, who has died aged 101, was a lyric soprano who made her name in Vancouver as one of the first singers to appear at the city’s famous Theatre Under the Stars when it opened its doors in 1940.
She sang the lead role in several operettas, including The Chocolate Soldier by Oscar Straus, Naughty Marietta by Victor Herbert and The Student Prince by Sigmund Romberg. She also gave recitals of classical lied, recalling that wartime restrictions required her to sing them in English rather than German.
Her admirers compared her looks to those of Betty Grable, while the handful of recordings that survive suggest a voice of grace and splendour. However, after a brief postwar career in London, Ann Watt’s voice faltered and she never returned to professional singing.
Angela Jean Elizabeth Watt was born in Brandon, Manitoba, on November 13 1915, the youngest of six children of James, a builder and electrician from Co Tyrone in Ireland, and his wife Elizabeth, originally from Glasgow.
She was still young when the family moved to Vancouver, where her father abandoned his Presbyterianism in favour of the Salvation Army, pursuing his newfound allegiance with fundamentalist fervour.
At the age of 14 Ann rebelled, travelling with a friend across the US border into Washington state where she saw her first film, Only the Brave (1930), starring Gary Cooper and Mary Brian. She described its effect on her as “nothing short of seismic”, adding that it introduced “worldly ideas” into her mind.
She learnt shorthand at high school, sang in the glee club and worked part time at Woolworth’s. After leaving school she took a job answering telephone inquiries in her sister’s laundry, which specialised in starching men’s collars.
While on a singing engagement she met Avis Phillips, a distinguished teacher, through whom she encountered Ira Dilworth, regional head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He made sure that during the war she became a sweetheart of the country’s armed forces, singing Noël Coward’s I’ll See You Again in broadcasts of Canada Calling to troops overseas. Afterwards she auditioned successfully for San Francisco Light Opera.
Yet she opted to set sail for England armed with letters of recommendation and with assurances ringing in her ears that she would take London by storm. It was not to be. She failed an audition for the Glyndebourne Opera chorus and instead landed a small role in King’s Rhapsody, the Ivor Novello musical that opened at the Palace Theatre in September 1949 with the composer initially in the title role.
She gave a handful of recitals for BBC radio, but was soon having trouble with her high notes. After consulting a succession of singing teachers she came across Elisabeth Schumann, the great German soprano, who was now in her sixties. Schumann offered her some hope – providing that Ann Watt accompanied her back to New York City, where she had been living since 1918.
By this time Ann Watt was romantically involved with Patrick Halling, a violinist, and decided that she had spent enough money on teachers, so declined.
She and Halling were married in 1949 and for the next six years, before the birth of their two sons, enjoyed something of a bohemian existence, travelling by car and motorcycle around postwar Europe.
Ann Watt never gave up hope of resuming her career and for many years continued to practise assiduously. Four years ago she was inducted into the British Columbia Entertainment Hall of Fame. She remained a staunch Salvationist until the end of her life.
Halling and their sons survive her.
Ann Watt, born November 13 1915, died June 4 2017