Vivian Tierney

Vivian Tierney is an English operatic soprano born on 26 November 1957 in Highgate, London. Though she grew up in Manchester and attended the Manchester Grammar School for Girls, no other members of her family were musical. Her ambition to become an opera singer was sparked by watching a televised performance of La bohème from Covent Garden. From the age of six she attended Saturday morning lessons at Oldham Rep, where she studied prose and verse, and she also participated in local choirs. Beginning at age 14, she took singing lessons with Rita Crosby, and her interest in repertoire leaned toward what she described as the more emotional material, particularly verismo and twentieth-century music.

While still a schoolgirl, Tierney's singing teacher encouraged her to audition for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. She was accepted into the chorus at the age of 17, and also understudied and occasionally performed the Gilbert and Sullivan roles of Lady Ella in Patience and Giulia in The Gondoliers. That experience led to principal roles with the company from 1977 to 1979, among them the title role in Princess Ida, which served as her professional debut, as well as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard. She returned to D'Oyly Carte in 1981–82, taking on the role of Yum-Yum in The Mikado. Her Broadway appearances include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Hot Mikado, with her first Broadway credit dating to 1976. The 1982 D'Oyly Carte "Last Night" recording features her voice, and she also appeared in the concert video Gilbert and Sullivan's Greatest Hits, filmed at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1982.

During her time with D'Oyly Carte, Tierney met and married fellow company artiste Gareth Jones (c. 1948–2010), a marriage that later ended in divorce. She was subsequently engaged by Tom Hawkes for roles at Sadler's Wells in The Count of Luxembourg and The Gypsy Princess, which in turn led to an invitation to sing Edwige in Kent Opera's Robinson Crusoe. Her debut at the English National Opera came in 1986, when she stepped in for an indisposed Lesley Garrett in Orpheus in the Underworld. Her major breakthrough at the London Coliseum followed in 1990, when she took the title role in the world premiere of Robin Holloway's Clarissa. She went on to sing a wide range of roles at the ENO, including Regan in Lear, Mimì, Malinka, Etherea, and Kunka in The Adventures of Mr Brouček, Fiordiligi, Tatyana, Salome, and Ellen Orford, before creating the role of Mrs Foran in the 2000 premiere of The Silver Tassie.

Tierney performed at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes in 1992, 1994, and 2000, and as Mrs Coyle in Owen Wingrave in 1997. As a member of the Freiburg Opera, she sang Ellen Orford, Giulietta, Jenny, the Marschallin, and Renata. She also appeared at opera houses in Munich, Monte Carlo, Nancy, and Basle, where her portrayal of the Dyer's Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten was noted as a highlight of the 1994–95 season, despite her having believed she was auditioning for the role of the Empress. Additional engagements took her to the Montpellier Festival, where she sang Mimì and Donna Anna, and to Opera North for The Merry Widow, as well as to Flanders Opera.

Her recordings include Lehár's Der Graf von Luxemburg, Britten's The Turn of the Screw as Miss Jessel, Britten's Peter Grimes as Ellen Orford, Mozart's Don Giovanni sung in English as Elvira, and Nyman's Man and Boy: Dada. Her son David appeared alongside her in the Baylis Programme production of Wozzeck, playing Marie's son. Tierney later married Canadian tenor Alan Woodrow.