Jill Gomez, the soprano celebrated for her lustrous voice and vivid stage presence, has died aged 83. She rose to prominence in the early 1970s and became a fixture at Glyndebourne, Covent Garden and English National Opera, praised for performances including the Governess in Britten's The Turn of the Screw and Anne Trulove in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, before creating the role of the Duchess of Argyll in Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face.

Born in New Amsterdam, British Guiana, and raised in Trinidad, Gomez moved to the UK aged 13 to study at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, later joining the Glyndebourne festival chorus. She performed with major houses across Europe and made acclaimed recordings, including a bestselling album of Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, and was linked to two operatic scandals: appearing topless in Tippett's The Knot Garden in 1970, and originating the scandalous title role in Powder Her Face in 1995.