Anna Pollak was born in Manchester in 1912. As an opera singer, she sang leading mezzo-soprano roles with the English Opera Group and Sadler's Wells Opera Company. Having performed for the British troops during the Second World War, she auditioned for the newly re-opened Sadler's Wells Opera without any formal musical training to her name, making her debut for the company in Mozart's Così fan tutte. Leaving Sadler's in 1962, she returned as a guest artist for Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades and Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. As well as performing at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera House, Pollak created several roles in 20th century operas including Lady Nelson in Berkeley's Nelson and Bianca in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. Pollak received an OBE in 1962.
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