at St George's, Saturday 23rd August
Elizabeth Bainbridge was born in Lancashire and studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London, making her debut as a principal mezzo soprano at Glyndebourne in 1963 as the Third Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflote. Her Covent Garden debut was made the following year in Wagner's Die Walkure and in 1965 she joined the company and has since sung in nearly 1,000 performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Her roles with the Royal Opera include Mistress Quickly, Suzuki, Berta, Amneris, Emilia, Erda, Arvidson, Mamma Lucia, Filipyevna, Auntie (Peter Grimes) and Grandma Burya. Miss Bainbridge has appeared with the Royal Opera at La Scala, Milan (1976), South Korea and Japan (1979), The Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles (1984) and The Athens Festival (1985). Other engagements have taken her to Belgium, France, Spain, Chicago, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Scotland and Wales.
Her concert career has included appearances at The Albert Hall, Festival Hall, Barbican, Liverpool and Paris. She sang in two Last Night of the Proms with Sir Colin Davis and has appeared in several TV operas and BBC recordings.
Her recordings include Rape of Lucretia with the composer Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes, Onegin, Dido and Aeneas, Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love and Tudor Portrait with appearances in many others. This last year she has sung in Jenufa in Tel Aviv and Jenufa and Floyd's Susanna in Nantes.
The accompanist for Miss Bainbridge will be Stella Starr, who is a much talented pianist in her own right, and currently is accompanist to the Portsmouth Chorus.
The recital commences at 7.30.pm on Saturday 23rd August. Tickets by programme are £3 in aid of the Organ Fund Appeal. Refreshments during the interval.
This will be a magical event, and clearly we are privileged indeed to have such a well known professional Opera singer visit us. An occasion not to be missed.
written by Mark Dancer
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