RUTH PACKER 1910 – 2005
Ruth Packer was born in London in 1910. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then in Leipzig with Elena Gerhardt, in whose house she lived for several months. Finally she studied in Vienna showing great promise as a dramatic soprano but belonging to the unfortunate generation of singers whose careers suffered from the hiatus caused by the Second World War. She appeared at Covent Garden in Sir Thomas Beecham’s Grand Opera Season in May and June 1939, singing Helmwige in “Die Walkure” (part of a Ring cycle), and was engaged to sing Gutrune in “Gotterdammerung” the following season – but it was destined not to take place.
She spent the war years touring, initially with Sadler’s Wells Opera, for whom she sang Rosalinde in “Die Fledermaus” and the title role in “Madam Butterfly.” One of the star singers at Sadler’s Wells at that time was the Welsh tenor Tudor Davies, whom Packer married as her first husband. They both left the company in 1941 and joined the Carl Rosa Opera Company where her roles included Leonora in “Il Trovatore”, Santuzza in “Cavalleria rusticana”, Elisabeth in “Tannhauser” and Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni”, as well as Musetta in “La Boheme” and the title role in “Tosca”. A true dramatic soprano, she was especially good in parts like Leonora and Tosca, where her temperament was in tune with the character.
Dublin audiences heard her between 1945 and 1948
Meanwhile the Welsh National Opera was inaugurated in 1946, with Davies singing Canio in “Pagliacci” and the title role in “Faust”. In 1952 Packer sang Abigail in a new production of Verdi’s “Nabucco”; the amateur chorus in particular scored a triumph. She sang twice more for WNO, as Violetta in a revival of “La traviata” in 1953, and as Elena in Verdi’s “Sicilian Vespers” in 1954, another new production that was a great success.
After she retired from the opera stage, Ruth Packer taught singing, first at the Royal College of Music and then privately. She was an excellent if sometimes eccentric teacher (she liked to begin her lessons at 8.30 in the morning) and her pupils included Gwynneth Jones, Anne Evans, Catherine Wilson, Katherine Pring and Helen Field. She spent the final years of her life in the Algarve.
Opera in Ireland 