Susan Chilcott, 'tall, fearless' soprano, dies of cancer at 40

One of Britain's leading opera singers, Susan Chilcott, died yesterday from breast cancer at the age of 40.

Her death came three months after she made her operatic debut at the Royal Opera House, in which her "radiant" and "glorious" performance outshone even that of her co-star, Placido Domingo. The soprano died at her home in Timsbury, near Bath.

Her husband, David Sigall described Ms Chilcott, who had a four-year-old son called Hugh from a previous relationship, as the most "loving" wife and mother. "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," Mr Sigall, who was also her agent, told today's Daily Telegraph. "My heart goes out to her parents and her son Hughie to whom she was devoted above everything."

Antonio Pappano, the music director of the Royal Opera House, also described Ms Chilcott's death as a "terrible loss" to the operatic world. "We are all devastated at the news," he said. "She was surely one of the shining stars on the international opera scene. She loved to sing and audiences could always feel that."

Ms Chilcott took her first singing lessons at the age of six and went on to perform with the most distinguished of opera companies, including the English National Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the Opera North. She made her first appearance abroad in 1994, when she sang at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, before performing all over Europe. Three years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Ms Chilcott showed her distinctive strength of character throughout her illness by continuing to turn out first-class performances. In the middle of a course of chemotherapy, and after surgery, she sang with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in a performance she described as "probably the most important in my career".

Last year, Ms Chilcott performed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the first time, playing Helena in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

One of the many highlights of her career came three months ago when she made her Royal Opera House debut, playing Lisa in Tchaikovsky's The Queen Of Spades opposite Domingo. Her performance earned her the admiration of an army of critics, who called her performance "glorious", "radiant" and "outstanding". One bewitched writer said she was "a natural: tall, beautiful and seemingly fearless on stage".

During this production her professionalism as well as her natural operatic talents drew praise. When her dress was set alight by a candle, she calmly continued singing as staff extinguished the flames.

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Her final performance was in July at a Shakespeare evening in Brussels with the actress Fiona Shaw and the pianist Iain Burnside. She was booked for the Royal Opera House next year and with the Welsh National Opera in 2005.