Opera's rising star dies at 40

Susan Chilcott, one of the country's leading opera singers, has died from breast cancer aged 40.

The soprano was at home with her family in Timsbury, near Bath, when she died.

She was married to her agent, David Sigall, and had a four-year-old son from a previous relationship.

Miss Chilcott, described by critics as "glorious" and "radiant", made her debut at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House last June playing Lisa in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades opposite Placido Domingo.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 but kept working. Her final public appearance was in Brussels three months ago, at a Shakespeare evening with the actress Fiona Shaw.

Her husband said: "She was not only a very beautiful woman but someone who was immensely loveable and loving. She was a person in whom art and life merged seamlessly.

"My heart goes out to her parents and her son Hughie to whom she was devoted above everything."

Miss Chilcott, who started singing lessons at the age of six and became a child chorister, was known for her professionalism.

When her dress was set alight by a candle during the run of Queen of Spades, she carried on singing after stagehands put out the flames.

The 2,000-strong audience had had to shout "behind you" as she sang on, initially unaware of the flames licking the train of her dress.

After her diagnosis with cancer, she admitted she was "terrified", adding: "The whole world came crashing down."

She underwent surgery and chemotherapy but she said her way of coping with the illness involved her passion for cooking and being an "ordinary mum".

Her portrayal of Lisa in the Queen of Spades at Covent Garden, when she also shared the stage with Sir Thomas Allen, - was "memorable", said critics.

One called it a "personal triumph ... she is an artist who consistently gives 120 per cent of herself, not in any wham-bam way but with really creative use of dynamic and musical phrase". Another critic described Miss Chilcott as "a natural - tall, beautiful and seemingly fearless on stage". Others praised her "powerful, utterly secure singing" and her "radiance".

She made her operatic debut with Scottish Opera. Her first appearance abroad was in 1994 in Brussels which led to performances all over Europe and in New York at the Met.

She also appeared as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello at Glyndbourne and Prokofiev's War And Peace at the Coliseum-During her career, she sang with the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera and Opera North.

She also made many appearances in Britain's concert halls singing under several distinguished conductors, including Sir Bernard Haitink and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

When she was taken ill again this summer, her diary included future engagements at Covent Garden (Peter Grimes), the Paris Opera Bastille (Rusalka) and Brussels' La Monnaie (Der Rosenkavalier).

Sadly, she made few recordings, although a solo recital of songs by Aaron Copland, will be released in the autumn.