Arda Mandikian; soprano whose career came to an end after she spoke out against the military junta in Greece
Hyfler/Rosner
Arda Mandikian, the Greek soprano, who died on November 8
aged 85, was a great favourite of Benjamin Britten and
created the role of Miss Jessel, the ghostly former
governess in Turn of the Screw; but her international
singing career came to a premature end in the 1960s after
she spoke out publicly against the military junta which
ruled Greece at that time.
Striking-looking with classical Greek features and jet black
hair, Arda Mandikian had a voice which was notable for its
emotional intensity. She appeared regularly at the Aldeburgh
Festival during the 1950s, and created the part of Miss
Jessel in September 1954 at La Fenice in Venice, repeating
the role in the British premi�re the following month and
taking part in the subsequent recording in January 1955.
Britten later explained that he had written the part with
her vocal and acting abilities in mind.
She first appeared at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in
Britten's Peter Grimes in December 1953, and Britten was
inspired to write the music for Apollo in Aschenbach's dream
sequence of Death in Venice after hearing her sing the First
Delphic Hymn, an early Greek melody, at the 1954 Aldeburgh
Festival.
In the early 1960s Arda Mandikian returned to Greece to look
after her elderly mother. Subsequently she spoke out against
the Greek colonels and refused to sing in public in protest
at their repression. As a result she was kept under
surveillance and dared not accept invitations to sing abroad
for fear she would be refused permission to return to her
homeland.
Arda Mandikian was born in Smyrna (now Turkish Izmir) on
September 1 1924, the daughter of survivors of the 1915
massacre of Armenians. The family fled to Athens, and she
studied at the Athens Conservatory with the soprano Elvira
de Hildalgo (who also taught Maria Callas) and the mezzo
Alexandra Trianti. She made her debut aged 15 singing the
duet Mira, O Norma from Bellini's Norma with Callas.
In 1948 her interest in the folk music of Ancient Greece
brought her to England to meet Egon Wellesz, a leading
scholar of Byzantine and early Greek music. A recital at
Morley College led to invitations to perform in Oxford, at
the Wigmore Hall and on the Third Programme. In 1950 she
made her opera debut at Oxford as Dido in the second part of
Berlioz's Les Troyens.
The following year she appeared at the Mermaid Theatre as
the First Witch in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, later taking
the part of the Sorceress, which she recorded twice, the
second time in Benjamin Britten's version. She made her
debut at the Paris Opera as Eurydice in 1953 and at Covent
Garden the same year as one of the nieces in Peter Grimes.
She returned to the Garden to sing Musetta in La Boh�me and
in 1954 the title role in Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or. She
sang regularly at the Proms and widely in Europe.
After the fall of the Greek junta, Arda Mandikian became a
prominent and respected figure in Greek cultural life,
serving as joint director of Greek National Opera (1974-80).
Arda Mandikian was unmarried.