Elizabeth Benson

Canadian soprano. Born Halifax, 7 Dec 1925; died Scarborough, Ontario, 8 Jul 2010. She studied at the Toronto Conservatory of Music and at The Juilliard School. Benson made her opera debut in 1947 as Marie in The Bartered Bride. She won the 1947-8 CBC's Singing Stars of Tomorrow, and subsequently sang several roles with the CBC Opera Company, including Violetta in La Traviata and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (1949), Princess Turandot in Turandot (1950), and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (1953). She appeared in other CBC radio productions of opera, including Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi and Falstaff, Eugene Onegin, Otello, Hippolyte et Aricie and Dido and Aeneas (1963). For CBC radio she gave many song recitals, some devoted to works of one composer: Schubert (1949), Morawetz (1949), Brahms (1965), and Berlioz (Les Nuits d'été, 1965).