To listen to YOU one might think Dame Gwyneth had been an active member of the Nazi Party (and then lied about it!)

One might think she threw her colleague's costumes out of the dressing room and into the corridor, or used her cellphone to complain about the air conditioning in her limo.

One might think she hung on to her high notes to emphasise the declining powers of a singer much greater than she.

One might even assume she had cut Glauce's aria, when only ten minutes ago she was SO NICE!

But no. By all accounts Dame Gwyneth is a committed and hard working artist, giving her all in performance, supportive of others, supremely 'professional' and a truly likeable person.

So why, we wonder, do we hear things like;

"...unpleasant memories of nearly projectile vomiting all over her seatmate during a 1980 Tristan in which Gwyneth Jones warbled and moaned her way through the piece as if she had instruments of torture clamped to her...'

Pithy Galore, San Francisco B.A.R.

" Gwyneth Jones screeches like an ambulance siren"

Anonymous San Francisco Opera Queen

"...a Bargain Basement soprano. Three notes for the price of one..."

"...Gwyneth Jones in La Fanciulla del West : "Granny Get Your Gun"

Obscure UK music critics

AK: "Will trade for Gwyneth Jones tapes"
EB: "You'll probably do anything to get rid of them..."

rec.music.opera

But why? After all --

• Gwyneth is not unavoidable (like that ubiquitous Spanish tenor),
• Gwyneth is in better vocal estate than many others who attempt the same repertoire (thinking of that Hungarian soprano who won't quit singing Turandot)
• and she is most definitely NOT dull (fill in name here…)

And here's a positive that outweighs all the negatives: she is an artist of courage, perception and depth.

Look beyond those vocal problems of the past, and look and listen with an open mind to some of her magnificent performances now available on CD and video. Or, better, catch one of her increasingly rare American stage performances. You may learn to love this superb artist!