Frances Ginzer

Ginzer, Frances

Frances (Joan) Ginzer. Soprano, b Calgary 19 Sep 1955; B MUS (Calgary) 1976, M MUS (North Texas) 1979, Artist Diploma opera (Toronto) 1981. Her first public performances took place at seven when she sang 'Santa Lucia' on two Calgary children's TV programs. She studied with Elaine Higgin and later with Alexander Gray, Edward Baird, and Irene Jessner. She attended the Banff SFA in 1971, 1974, and 1975. Ginzer made her COC debut in 1981 as Clothilde in Norma. In 1982 she made her European debut as the soprano soloist for the Ottawa Choral Society's performance of Messiah at the Festival Internazionale di Musica dell' Aquila in L'Aquila, Italy. In 1983 she moved to Germany to sing with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, making her debut as Antonia in Tales of Hoffmann. Her British debut in 1984 was as Manon with the English National Opera. In 1987 she left Karlsruhe to join the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. She has sung with many international and Canadian opera companies in such roles as Anna (Merry Widow), Cleopatra (Handel's Julius Caesar), Contessa (Nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Lora (Wagner's Die Feen), Micaëla (Carmen), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), and Violetta (La Traviata). Ginzer appears as Evanco on the 1987 recording of the Karlsruhe production of Handel's Rodrigo (EMI F-670-023-25) and as Jouvenot with Joan Sutherland and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra and Chorus, Bonynge conducting, on a CD of Adriana Lecouvreur (1988, 2-London 425-815-2). Following Ginzer's performance in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor with the Welsh National Opera, critic Rodney Milnes wrote that 'her clean bright soprano can take on a spinto edge to intensify its basically lyric quality, and she has a fascinatingly coloured lower register; add an excellent technique... and you have an ideal Lucia' (Opera, vol 40, Dec 1989).