Janet Baker’s father, an engineer, was a keen amateur singer who introduced his daughter and her elder brother Peter to the North Country traditions of choral music and brass bands. She was only ten when Peter’s death came as a major shock for the whole family. After education in York and Grimsby Baker joined a bank, which in 1953 transferred her to London so that she could continue her vocal studies with Helene Isepp and later with Meriel St Clair. She made her stage début in 1956 with the Oxford University Opera Club as Miss Roza in Smetana’s The Kiss, while during the summers of 1956 and 1957 she was a chorus member and understudy at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Baker appeared as Gluck’s Orfeo for the first time in 1958 at Morley Col...