FROM “SANTA LUCIA” to “Ho-jo-to-ho,” Canadian soprano Frances Ginzer enjoyed a 33-year career (1975-2008) that took her to the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert halls, singing some of the repertoire’s most challenging soprano roles. Now comfortably into her second decade of a quiet but active retirement in her hometown of Calgary, Ginzer can look back on her career with satisfaction, gratitude, and perhaps even a sense of wonderment: “I was just your typical Prairie Girl—how did I go from being a painfully shy person to wearing Brunnhilde’s helmet and breastplate, I really don’t know!”
Not only was Ginzer Wagner’s Warrior Maiden, but also an acclaimed Isolde, Senta, Leonore (), Turandot, Tosca, Gioconda, and Jenůfa at La Scala,, which opened Canadian Opera Company’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in 2006. By her rough estimate, Ginzer sang 900 performances of operas, symphonies, concerts, and recitals. “I sang 59 roles, plus 3 or 4 others that I learned but never performed.”
