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The English mezzo-soprano, Frances Bourne, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and The Royal Academy of Music, where she won many of the singing prizes.
Appearances include Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas and Puck in Weber's Oberon under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Junon in Charpentier's Acteon at Aldeburgh with Emmanuelle Haïm, Judith Weir's The Consolations of Scholarship with Kokoro, George Frideric Handel's Oreste at the Linbury, Covent Garden, Irene Tamerlano for the 20th anniversary of the Cambridge Handel Opera Group, Cherubino at Grange Park and Pitti Sing The Mikado with Nationale Reisopera.
In great demand on the concert platform Frances Bourne has sung with many of Europe's leading conductors, including Harry Christophers, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Emmanuelle Haïm, Andrew Manze, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Roger Norrington and Trevor Pinnock. Recent oratorio performances include G.F. Handel's Messiah (Harry Christophers and The Sixteen), Tippett's A Child Of Our Time (Huddersfield Choral Society), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater (The Hanover Band), W.A. Mozart's C minor Mass and J.S. Bach's B minor Mass (BWV 232) (Gloucester Cathedral), and Dvorak's Stabat Mater (Winchester Cathedral). She has appeared with the Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, the City of London Sinfonia, and the English Chamber Orchestra and has recently released recordings of W.A. Mozart's Requiem (European Chamber Orchestra), Copland's In the Beginning (Gloucester Cathedral Choir), and J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 148 and Puck in Oberon both with John Eliot Gardiner. Her debut solo CD, "The Truth about Love", a collection of cabaret songs by Benjamin Britten, Martinu and Weill, is due to be released on the Sony BMG Masterworks in March.
A keen recitalist, she has performed for New Kent Opera with Gary Cooper, at the Buxton Festival with Malcolm Martineau, and as artist in residence at the Presteigne Festival. Recent concerts include J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with London Symphony Chorus at the Barbican, W.A. Mozart's C Minor Mass with the Huddersfield Choral Society, St John Passion (BWV 245) with The Sixteen in Granada and various concerts in the Three Choirs Festival.
Most recent and upcoming engagements include the central role in Rachel Portman's new piece The Water Diviner's Tale at the BBC Proms, a New Year's Eve Gala concert with the Manchester Camerata featuring works from "The Truth about Love", Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Holland Park, Jane in the premiere of Micha Hamel's Snow White with Nationale Reisopera in Holland, Waltraute in their new Ring Cycle, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stephano in Roméo et Juliette and a role in Jonathan Dove's Death on Swan River for Opera North, Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen at Grange Park, Gymnasiast/Groom/Theater-Garderobiere in Lulu in Geneva and Armando in Le Grand Macabre at La Monnaie in Brussels. |
