Opera Singer. A contralto equally adept in comic and serious roles, she is probably most remembered for her career at Covent Garden in the 1950s and 1960s. Raised in coastal southwestern England, she had early musical ambitions and studied at the Royal Academy of Music prior to her 1948 professional bow as Cio-Cio-San's servant Suzuki in a Carl Rosa Opera Company production of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly". Monica made her 1949 Covent Garden debut as the Second Boy of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and over the next few years sang such roles as Rosette of Massenet's "Manon", the prostitute Maddalena in Verdi's "Rigoletto", Mrs. Sedley from Britten's "Peter Grimes", Cherubino in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro", the witch Azucena of Verdi's "Il Trovatore", Pauline in Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades", a part that required her to accompany herself on the harpsichord, and at least two characters from Wagner's "Ring Cycle", Flosshilde of "Das Rheingold" and Siegrune in "Die Walkure". Quite capable in more modern fare, she was seen at Covent Garden in several newer roles, among them Margaret from Alban Berg's "Wozzeck", Lady Essex in Britten's "Gloriana", and Evande from Sir William Walton's "Trolius and Cressida"; in 1954 Monica began a six year association with the Glyndebourne Festival, bowing as Ragande from Rossini's seldom-seen "Le Comte Ory" and later seen as Marcellina in "The Marriage of Figaro", Dryade of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos", Queen Henrietta from Vincenzo Bellini's "I Puritani", and Berta of Rossini's "The Barber of Seville". Returning to Covent Garden in 1960, she proved skilled at early music, singing the Sorceress in Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" and Bradmante in an acclaimed production of Handel's "Alcina", as well as Annina from Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier", Desdemona's maid Emilia of Verdi's "Otello", and the old Marquise de Birkenfeld from Donizetti's comedic show-off piece "The Daughter of the Regiment", a work she sang with Dame Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti at both Covent Garden and New York's Metropolitan Opera. Monica was also a noted oratorio artist, her repertoire including Brahms' "Alto Rhapsody", Frederic Delius' "A Mass of Life", Handel's "Messiah", Beethoven's "Mass in C-major", and Mozart's "Requiem"; following her gradual retirement she lived out her days in Surrey, devoting herself to her six children. Today much of her vast recorded legacy remains available including a noted "Alcina", Richard Bonynge's interpretation of "The Daughter of the Regiment", Sir Thomas Beecham's final preservation of "Messiah", and even a number of Gilbert and Sullivan sets.