Elizabeth Forbes (3 August 1924 – 22 October 2014) was an English

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

, and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

who specialised in writing about

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. Actively working as a professional writer and journalist from the early 1970s through 2013, her main areas of interest were 19th and 20th-century opera (French and Scandinavian in particular) and singers, both historical and present-day. She published multiple books related to opera and contributed many reviews and articles to several notable periodicals and newspapers internationally, including the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

'', ''

Opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

'', ''

Opera Canada ''Opera Canada'' is a quarterly music magazine published by Opera Canada Publications. It is the oldest continuously published arts magazine in Canada. It is an independent magazine separate from the Canadian Opera Association. Along with Opera ...

'' and ''

Opera News ''Opera News'' was an American classical music magazine. It was published from 1936 to 2023 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild—a non-profit organization, located at Lincoln Center, that was founded to promote opera and support the Metropolitan ...

'' among several others.

Life and career

Born in

Camberley Camberley is a town in north-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Tow ...

, Elizabeth Forbes was the daughter of Admiral Sir Charles Forbes; who was Commander-in-Chief of the

Home Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the First ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Her mother, Marie Louise Berndtson, was Admiral Forbes's second wife and was originally from Sweden. Elizabeth served in the Women's Royal Navy Service during World War II from 1941 through 1946. After the war she spent two years living in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

where she learned to speak Swedish fluently and worked in a book shop. Upon returning to England in 1949 she joined the staff at the well known Curzon Street bookshop, Heywood Hill where she worked for many years. Forbes began her career as a journalist in the early 1970s working as an opera critic for the ''

''; working with Andrew Porter and later

Ronald Crichton Ronald Crichton (28 December 1913 – 16 November 2005) was a music critic for the ''Financial Times'' in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a scion of the Earls of Erne. In his '' Times'' obituary he was described as "one of the last of the school of ...

. She quickly reoriented her career towards working full time as a critic and writer on opera for several periodicals in addition to her regular work for the ''Financial Times''. These included working as a foreign correspondent for the magazines ''

'', ''

'' and ''

Opera International Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a lib ...

''; and writing for the UK based magazine ''

'' on whose governing board she was a member. She also penned more than 100 obituaries for ''

'' on people connected to opera. She remained active as a writer until 2013 when a series of strokes impacted her ability to continue. Forbes was the author of numerous books on various subjects related to opera, including her 1985 work, ''Mario and Grisi'', which details the lives of opera singers

Giulia Grisi Giulia Grisi (22 May 1811 – 29 November 1869) was an Italian opera singer. She performed widely in Europe, the United States and South America and was among the leading sopranos of the 19th century. Her second husband was Giovanni Matteo Mario ...

and

Giovanni Matteo Mario Giovanni Matteo De Candia, also known as Mario (17 October 1810 – 11 December 1883), was an Italian opera singer. The most celebrated tenor of his era, he was lionized by audiences in Paris and London. He was the partner of the opera singer Giu ...

. She wrote a significant number of singing translations of the

libretti A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major l ...

of many operas, from French, German and Swedish, including works by

Gaspare Spontini Gaspare Luigi Pacifico Spontini (14 November 177424 January 1851) was an Italian opera composer and conductor from the classical era. During the first two decades of the 19th century, Spontini was an important figure in French ''opera'', and ...

Giacomo Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart and Richard Wa ...

and

Franz Berwald Franz Adolf Berwald (23 July 1796 – 3 April 1868) was a Swedish Romantic composer and violinist. He made his living as an orthopedist and later as the manager of a saw mill and glass factory, and became more appreciated as a composer after ...

, and also extensively contributed to reference works on singers and other operatic topics, including several hundred articles in the ''

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

'' and the related ''The Grove Book of Opera Singers''. Cummings, David (ed.)
"Forbes, Elizabeth"
''International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory'' (Classical and light classical), Routledge, 2000, p. 204; She died on 22 October 2014. She never married and never had children, but lived with her partner, Harry Lyons.

Partial list of works

Books

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Elizabeth 1924 births 2014 deaths English musicologists British women musicologists British journalists British women journalists British women music critics English music critics English women non-fiction writers People from Camberley English writers about music Women writers about music 20th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English writers 21st-century English women writers Women's Royal Naval Service personnel of World War II 20th-century English translators 21st-century English translators 20th-century English musicologists 21st-century English musicologists English people of Swedish descent Writers from Surrey