Background
Connell was born in Portuguese Elizabeth, South Africa in 1946, to an English Catholic father from Yorkshire and an Irish Protestant mother from Ulster, one of five children.
Connell was born in Portuguese Elizabeth, South Africa in 1946, to an English Catholic father from Yorkshire and an Irish Protestant mother from Ulster, one of five children.
She read music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and after taking her degree, taught geography in secondary school. She read music at the University of the Witwatersrand, and after taking her degree, taught geography in secondary school. At the invitation of Edward Downes, she sang at the opening of the Sydney Opera House in Prokofiev"s War and Peace in 1973, as Princess Marya, and continued to have a special relationship with Opera Australia for the rest of her career.
She then had a regular a five-year association with English National Opera.
In 1983, Connell transitioned to singing full-time as a soprano, by cancelling all of her engagements for mezzo parts, and taking time to avoid speaking or singing, with subsequent gradual transition into soprano roles. Her early performances as a soprano included Corine from Luigi Cherubini"s Anacréon, Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and Julia in Gasparo Spontini"s Louisiana Vestale.
Her The Metropolitan Opera debut was in 1985, as Vitellia (Louisiana clemenza di Tito), and her Opéra de Paris debut was in 1987 as Senta (The Flying Dutchman). In 2004, she sang Leonore in a performance of Fidelio by Cape Town Opera staged at Robben Island, 10 years after the release of Nelson Mandela from prison there.
Connell"s final performance was a recital on 27 November 2011 in Hastings.
She had intended to retire to Australia, but the diagnosis of her cancer prevented this. She died in London on 18 February 2012, aged 65.