Opera Singer. She shall probably be remembered as an exponent of Mozart's soprano roles. Raised in Blackwood, Monmouthshire, by a music loving family, she intended to become a teacher but at 15 was guided to London's Trinity College of Music. Trained as a mezzo soprano, she joined the Ambrosian Singers upon graduation then in 1962 made her operatic bow with the Welsh National Opera as Cherubino in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". That same year she joined Covent Garden, London, initially singing comprimario roles, but getting her big break in 1963 when she filled-in for an indisposed Theresa Berganza as Cherubino. Dame Margaret gradually assumed the soprano repertoire and after 1971 relocated to the Cologne Opera, later moving on to Munich where she made the Bavarian State Opera her main base. Over the years she portrayed a number of Mozart's characters including Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan tutte", Pamina in "The Magic Flute", Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni", and at successive stages of her career Barbarina, Cherubino, and La Contessa from "The Marriage of Figaro". In addition, she was several of Giuseppe Verdi's leading ladies, among them Desdemona from "Otello", Elizabeth in "Don Carlo", the title lead of "Aida" and the Amelias of both "Simon Boccanegra" and "Un Ballo in Maschera", as well as a noted recitalist and interpreter of lieder. Traveling widely, she was first heard in America as Pamina at the San Francisco Opera, later making her 1985 Metropolitan Opera debut as Desdemona. Eventually she was to add the title character of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" to her relatively small repertoire. The recipient of several honorary doctorates and designated Kammersangerin at both the Bavarian State Opera and the Vienna State Opera, she was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1982 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1993. Following her 1999 retirement she returned to her native Wales where she died of heart failure. Dame Margaret left a number of recordings, one of the best known featuring a part she never performed on stage, Isolde from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" in Maestro Carlos Kleiber's 1990 reading. Of building a career out of a limited number of roles she said: "...if there's a role that somebody else can sing better, let them do it".