She was born Rosemary April Cantelo in Purbrook, Hampshire. She attended Chelmsford County High School for Girls. She studied in London under Vilém Tauský, Joan Cross, Imogen Holst and others. She sang in the Glyndebourne Chorus and then made her debut in Edinburgh in 1950 as Barbarina and Echo. She played Rosetta in Love in a Village, the pasticcio by Arne, at Aldeburgh in June 1952. In the first half of the 1950s she sang Barbarina, Countess Ceprano and Poussette at Covent Garden. Cantelo sang in the British premieres of Hans Werner Henze's Boulevard Solitude and Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. She appeared in the world premiere of Malcolm Williamson's English Eccentrics. Among the roles she created are:
April Cantelo made several appearances at the Henry Wood Proms between 1958 and 1973, singing in Carmina Burana, Vaughan Williams Pastoral Symphony, Berlioz Les nuits d'été,, Malcolm Williamson's Our Man in Havana, Purcell's The Indian Queen, Cavalli's Messa concertata, excerpts from Monteverdi operas, Purcell odes and Haydn's Mass in D minor 'Nelsonmesse'. Cantelo took part in the inaugural concert of the Purcell Room in London on 3 March 1967 with Robert Tear, Raymond Leppard and Bernard Richards. She directed a production of Henry Purcell's The Fairy-Queen in New Zealand in 1972. In 1974 Cantelo sang Xantippe in the first professional UK production of Telemann's Der geduldige Socrates, for Kent Opera. Grove describes her voice as "a pure, clear lyrical soprano, not large, but capable of flexibility and variety of expression", describing her as "a very gifted singing actress". Her private pupils included Rosemary Joshua. April Cantelo married the conductor Colin Davis in 1949. They had two children, Suzanne and Christopher. The marriage was dissolved in 1964 after he fell in love with their au pair Ashraf Naini, a young Persian woman who was visiting London at the time, and who became his second wife.
Recordings
Cantelo recorded widely. Among baroque works, she recorded Charpentier's Messe de minuit pour noël with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge under David Willcocks, Handel's Messiah conducted by Walter Susskind, Purcell The Indian Queen under Charles Mackerras, Purcell's Hail! Bright Cecilia, conducted by Michael Tippett, and Handel and Blow anthems as well as Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day conducted by David Willcocks in 1969. She recorded one solo recital program of 14 songs from the eighteenth century by various composers all using lyrics by Shakespeare with Raymond Leppard conducting the English Chamber Orchestra. As well as three Haydn Masses with St. John’s College, Cambridge forces and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under George Guest, nineteenth century works included Schubert part songs, Donizetti's Emilia di Liverpool with Sutherland, Berlioz Béatrice et Bénédict and mélodies, Sullivan's Iolanthe under Sargent, and Solveig songs in Grieg's Peer Gynt with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Gibson. Her 20th century recordings include excerpts from Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss under Beecham from Edinburgh in 1950, Britten's The Little Sweep and Albert Herring under the composer, excerpts from Williamson's Julius Caesar Jones and his The Happy Prince and vocal works by Williamson and Hugh Wood. BBC studio recordings of Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot by Richard Wagner have subsequently been issued commercially on DG. She also recorded the well-loved Holly and the Ivy LP with Alfred Deller and the Deller Consort. The sound track recording of the film The Music Lovers includes Cantelo singing part of the letter scene from Eugene Onegin, with the LSO conducted by André Previn and she had previously recorded Metamorphosis on a Bed-time Theme by Alistair Sampson and Joseph Horovitz at the 1958 Hoffnung Festival, and Horrortorio at the 1961 Hoffnung Festival.
