Biography
Praised for her ‘breathtakingly perfect vocal performance’, the New Zealand mezzo soprano Bianca Andrew has been a member of the Ensemble at Oper Frankfurt since 2019. Following her acclaimed debuts as Sesto in Nadja Loschky’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto and as Aurelia in Brigitte Fassbaender’s Blühen, Frankfurt audiences can hear Bianca in an intimate solo recital, Ages of Woman, with pianist Anne Larlee on the 10th of September.
Originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, Bianca Andrew is a member of the Ensemble at Oper Frankfurt, where she recently made her highly-acclaimed debut as Sesto in Nadja Loschky’s new production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto. Praised for her detailed character portraits and ‘breathtakingly perfect vocal performance’ (Der Opernfreund), Bianca begins the 2024/25 season with a solo recital at Oper Frankfurt together with pianist and friend Anne Larlee. On the operatic stage, she will sing the roles of Garderobière/Gymnasiast/Groom and La Bonté in new productions of Berg’s Lulu and Magnard’s Guercoeur. She also reprises the roles of Adalgisa and The Tsarina in two Christof Loy productions of Norma and Christmas Eve.
Bianca has portrayed many notable mezzo roles on stage at Oper Frankfurt since she joined the prestigious theatre in 2019, including the title roles in La Cenerentola, Xerxes and Hänsel und Gretel, as well as Preziosilla (La forza del Destino), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), the Page (Salome), Tebaldo (Don Carlos), Mercédès (Carmen) and Enrichetta di Francia (I Puritani). In her first collaboration with the director Brigitte Fassbaender, Bianca created the role of Aurelia in Vito Zuraj’s newly-composed opera Blühen, which was awarded ‘World Premiere of the Year’ by Opernwelt in 2022. She has performed at the Bregenzer Festspiele, appearing as Bernardo in Goldschmidt’s Beatrice Cenci in 2018, and for Garsington Opera in 2019, in the role of Flamel in Offenbach’s Fantasio. Bianca maintains a strong connection with her home country, where she began her operatic career as an Emerging Artist with New Zealand Opera. She returned in 2021 to sing the role of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with the company, and in 2018 toured the country with writer Alex Ross (author of The Rest is Noise) in a recital of 20th Century chamber music with STROMA ensemble.
Bianca is an alumna of the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, where she studied with Margaret Medlyn. She later received a scholarship to study at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama under the tutelage of Yvonne Kenny, where her roles included Händel’s Radamisto and Philomène in Martinu’s Alexandre bis. Bianca was the winner of the Song Prize in the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Awards in London and in 2021 won the Anny Schlemm Prize in Frankfurt. Throughout her studies and career, Bianca has been generously supported and mentored by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.
