Mystery remains over death of opera singer, 36

The 36-year-old mezzo-soprano died five months after apparently successful surgery to replace a defective heart valve.

A coroner at an inquest in Hull yesterday returned a narrative verdict which said Miss Black, who was found in the garden of her boyfriend's house in Keyingham last November 24, died after developing a fatal cardiac arrhythmia, or irregular beat.

A post mortem examination showed the blood supply to her left heart ventricle had been restricted by an 80 per cent narrowing of one of her coronary arteries. This had developed in a short period of time but its cause remained unknown.

Cardiologist Dr John Caplin, who prepared an independent report for coroner Geoffrey Saul, told the inquest: "The development over a very short period of time is extremely unusual but it does occur."

Miss Black had been to her GP twice in the fortnight leading up to her death and rang a specialist nurse at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where the surgery had been performed, on the day of her death, trying to find out the cause of the chest pains she was experiencing.

She was last seen by Dr Stewart Burdett, of Church View Surgery, Hedon, near Hull on November 17, complaining of shortness of breath, a dry cough and tenderness in the upper chest wall, but it was put down to an ongoing viral condition.

The nurse who last spoke to her, Philip Walters, said she complained of tenderness in the chest and pains in her shoulders.

He put these down to musculoskeletal pain, which he thought could be related to her return to professional singing.

Afterwards Miss Black's family said the inquest raised more questions that it had answered and they felt they were "none the wiser" on why she died.