Arda Mandikian
Arda Mandikian, the Greek soprano, who died on November 8 aged 85, was
a great favourite of Benjamin Britten and created the role of Miss
Jessel, the ghostly former governess in Turn of the Screw; but her
international singing career came to a premature end in the 1960s
after she spoke out publicly against the military junta which ruled
Greece at that time.

Daily Telegraph/UK
Published: 6:17PM GMT 23 Nov 2009

Arda Mandikian (left) as the ghost of Miss Jessel in Britten’s ‘Turn
of the Screw’ Striking-looking with classical Greek features and jet
black hair, Arda Mandikian had a voice which was notable for its
emotional intensity. She appeared regularly at the Aldeburgh Festival
during the 1950s, and created the part of Miss Jessel in September
1954 at La Fenice in Venice, repeating the role in the British
première the following month and taking part in the subsequent
recording in January 1955. Britten later explained that he had written
the part with her vocal and acting abilities in mind.

She first appeared at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in Britten’s
Peter Grimes in December 1953, and Britten was inspired to write the
music for Apollo in Aschenbach’s dream sequence of Death in Venice
after hearing her sing the First Delphic Hymn, an early Greek melody,
at the 1954 Aldeburgh Festival.

In the early 1960s Arda Mandikian returned to Greece to look after her
elderly mother. Subsequently she spoke out against the Greek colonels
and refused to sing in public in protest at their repression. As a
result she was kept under surveillance and dared not accept
invitations to sing abroad for fear she would be refused permission to
return to her homeland.

Arda Mandikian was born in Smyrna (now Turkish Izmir) on September 1
1924, the daughter of survivors of the 1915 massacre of Armenians. The
family fled to Athens, and she studied at the Athens Conservatory with
the soprano Elvira de Hildalgo (who also taught Maria Callas) and the
mezzo Alexandra Trianti. She made her debut aged 15 singing the duet
Mira, O Norma from Bellini’s Norma with Callas.

In 1948 her interest in the folk music of Ancient Greece brought her
to England to meet Egon Wellesz, a leading scholar of Byzantine and
early Greek music. A recital at Morley College led to invitations to
perform in Oxford, at the Wigmore Hall and on the Third Programme. In
1950 she made her opera debut at Oxford as Dido in the second part of
Berlioz’s Les Troyens.

The following year she appeared at the Mermaid Theatre as the First
Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, later taking the part of the
Sorceress, which she recorded twice, the second time in Benjamin
Britten’s version. She made her debut at the Paris Opera as Eurydice
in 1953 and at Covent Garden the same year as one of the nieces in
Peter Grimes. She returned to the Garden to sing Musetta in La Bohème
and in 1954 the title role in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or. She sang
regularly at the Proms and widely in Europe.

After the fall of the Greek junta, Arda Mandikian became a prominent
and respected figure in Greek cultural life, serving as joint director
of Greek National Opera (1974-80).

Arda Mandikian was unmarried.