Elizabeth Mawson

Mawson, Elizabeth

Elizabeth (Anne) Mawson, (b Burlington). Mezzo-soprano, actress, b Toronto 14 Feb 1927 - d Toronto 16 Feb 2008. While studying voice with Ruth Cross-Vanderpott, 1945-51 at the Hambourg Cons and 1951-9 privately, she sang soubrette roles in Gilbert & Sullivan and other operetta productions by the Toronto Light Opera Association, CBC radio and TV, and the Eaton Operatic Society. In 1954 she became a soloist at St Andrew's United Church, Toronto, a position she continued to hold in 1990. Elizabeth Mawson appeared in 1957 with the Opera Festival Association of Toronto as Hanna in The Merry Widow and also that year sang Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel. After the association had become the COC, she sang Martha in Faust and Flora in La Traviata (1966) and was Miss Todd in its Prologue to the Performing Arts presentations (1968, 1973) of Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief. She also sang at the Stratford Festival, her roles including Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore in 1960 and Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro in 1964 and 1965, and she appeared 1968-75 with the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Toronto in several of its productions. In 1968 she joined the Charlottetown Festival company, and by 1990 had been a member for 23 consecutive seasons. Mawson has sung Marilla in annual productions (beginning in 1971) of Anne of Green Gables as well as on tours (1970, 1973, 1980, 1986) and on recordings (Ready LR 045/Attic LAT 1225). Her other roles have included Queen Mary in the premiere of David Warrack's Windsor in 1978 and Maggie in Johnny Belinda. She was married to the baritone Howard Mawson.