Jean Rigby studied at the Birmingham School of Music and subsequently at the Royal Academy of Music with Patricia Clarke, with whom she still studies.

She has a long association with English National Opera, where her many rôles have included Penelope (The Return of Ulysses), Jocasta (Oedipus Rex), Carmen, Octavian, Britten’s Lucretia, Rosina, Helen of Troy (King Priam), Hyppolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Amastris (Xerxes) and Nicklausse (The Tales of Hoffmann). She is a regular guest at the Glyndebourne Festival, where her rôles have included Irene (Theodora), Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande), Eduige (Rodelinda) and Emilia (Otello).

For the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, she has sung Nicklausse and Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), with Isabella (L’Italiana in Algeri) for the Buxton Festival and both Angelina (La Cenerentola) and Idamantes (Idomeneo) for Garsington Opera.

Abroad, she has appeared with the Netherlands Opera (Stravinsky’s Biblical Fragments), the Flanders Opera (Suzuki), Seattle Opera (Charlotte) and San Diego Opera (Nicklausse).

Jean Rigby appears with the major orchestras and is a regular soloist at the BBC Promenade concerts. Others engagements include concerts with Neville Marriner, Trevor Pinnock, Mikhail Pletnev, Matthias Bamert, Robert King, Richard Hickox, Andrew Davis, Charles Mackerras and Leonard Slatkin.

Her extensive discography ranges from Bach, Vivaldi and Handel to Britten, Janáček and Birtwistle and includes the title rôle in The Rape of Lucretia (with Richard Hickox), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Mark Wigglesworth and Berg’s Wozzeck with Paul Daniel.