Anna Russell, singer and comedian, 1911-2006

Anna Russell, soprano, comedienne, author, died at age 94 yesterday in Rosedale, New South Wales, Australia. Ms. Russell toured widely and recorded her better known segments, including her 30-minute version of Wagner’s “Ring” and “How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera.” She appeared first on  BBC radio as a folksinger and also appeared on television's The Ed Sullivan Show. Ms. Russell authored several books, including The Power of Being a Positive Stinker (1955) and the Anna Russell Songbook (1958).

Richard Dyer, reviewing for the Boston Globe, wrote of Ms. Russell's last appearance in Boston, (for the Celebrity Series), in 1985:

The lady knows her music; her parodies are dead-on (the French art song - "I don't want to make love this afternoon; I want to eat"). She knows every absurdity of platform demeanor, from the diseuse's affected delivery of mute "e" to the tuning difficulties and sweeping arms of the player of the Celtic harp. She knows the formulas of Gilbert & Sullivan as well as they did, and she is hilariously alert to the faulty prose logic of Wagner's epic poem. She has no use for the real pretentiousness that surrounds phony art, and respect for what is good and true. And she knows a lot of things about people - her simplest remarks can boomerang ("Things would be so different, if they were not what they are").

Anna Russell made four appearances for the Celebrity Series between 1978 and 1985.

Obituary from ABC Southeast NSW

The Anna Russell Shrine

Anna Russell's wikipedia entry

Anna Russell's Internet Movie Database page

Anna Russell's bio from Comedy College

UPDATE:

from Monotonous Forest

from The Standing Room

from The Boston Globe