Margaret Gale

Margaret Winifred Gale (born 10 September 1931) is an English operatic soprano who sang leading roles with Sadler's Wells Opera Company (later to become English National Opera) throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Early life Margaret Gale was born and educated in Sheffield, the second of three daughters of Winifred née Walker and Arthur Gale, an artisan working in the cutlery trade for Joseph Rodgers of Sheffield but who also had his own cutlery business employing six people. She first sang in public at the age of four and by her teens had gained a local reputation, performing solos and duets at Crookes Congregational Church in Sheffield where, at 19, she sang the title role in Paul Abraham's operetta Victoria and Her Hussar. Her first jobs were as a clerk at Bennet College and then with the National Coal Board. She appeared with several local operatic societies taking leading roles in Oklahoma!, Carousel and Song of Norway. Her first operatic roles were with the Sheffield Grand Opera Society as Oscar (a travesty role) in The Masked Ball and Abigail in Nabucco. It was after this that she was advised to start training seriously for a professional singing career. Aged 19, she began lessons with Eva Rich at the same time as Joyce Blackham and Peter Glossop, also later to become stalwarts of Sadler's Wells. Career After a decade as a semi-professional singer Gale sang her first role in London as Adele in Die Fledermaus for the London County Council Open Air Theatres. The spring of 1961 saw her at Glyndebourne in cover roles after which she made her first appearance as a principal with the Sadler's Wells Opera Company in the 1961/2 season as Musetta in La Bohème. In 1963 she spent a month in Milan studying with the baritone Luigi Borgonovo (1899–1975), the teacher of Franco Corelli and Luciano Pavarotti.