with Benjamin Britten was perhaps one of the most fruitful periods in her career. Britten wrote four great roles specifically for Vyvyan: Penelope Rich (Gloriana), The Governess (The Turn of The Screw), Tytania (A Midsummer Night's Dream), and Mrs Julian (Owen Wingrave). She can be heard on recordings of Britten's The Turn of the Screw, The Little Sweep, Owen Wingrave, Cantata Academica and Spring Symphony. Her Tytania can now be heard in an original cast recording of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream on Testament records, her Lady Rich, called by John Steane "a remarkable study in edgy pride" can be found on Music Preserved and her deliciously neurotic Mrs Julian can be heard on Decca. Vyvyan is featured in Britten's realizations of Purcell's The Fairy-Queen and Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Her Handel recordings include Semele, Saul, and two separate recordings of Messiah; one with conductor Sir Adrian Boult and the other under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham. She collaborated with Beecham and the Royal Choral Society on a recording of Beethoven's Mass in C with fellow singers Monica Sinclair and Marian Nowakowski. Her recital records include "Songs of England" with Ernest Lush, piano, Mozart arias conducted by Peter Maag, Scarlatti cantatas with Elsie Morison, and Haydn and Mozart concert arias conducted by Harry Newstone. Sources D. Brook, Singers of Today (Revised Edition – Rockliff, London 1958), 192–194. 1925 births 1974 deaths English operatic sopranos Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music People from Broadstairs Deaths from bronchitis Musicians from Kent 20th-century British women opera singers