Jennifer France

Jennifer France was awarded the 2018 Critics’ Circle Emerging Talent Award. She has a growing reputation as a performer of contemporary music, as adept dramatically and physically as she is vocally. She was recently critically acclaimed for her performances as Ophelia in Brett Dean’s Hamlet for Glyndebourne on Tour, leading to an invitation to give the premiere of the composer’s And once I played Ophelia with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
She also recently sang in the premiere of George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, followed by appearances at the Dutch National Opera. Other roles include Ice in the premiere of Stuart MacRae’s Anthropocene for Scottish Opera and Her in the UK premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Passion for Music Theatre Wales.
Other engagements include the Karlsruhe and Wiesbaden State Theatres and the Nederlandse Reisopera, as well as Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park and Opera North. Her repertoire includes Marzelline (Fidelio), the Controller (Jonathan Dove’s Flight), the title role in Semele, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Giulia (La scala di seta), Countess Adèle (Le Comte Ory) and Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos).
She appears regularly in concert, including at the BBC Proms and with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Britten Sinfonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Classical Opera, the Hallé Orchestra, Huddersfield Choral Society, the London Handel Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Israel Camerata.
Winner of the Loveday Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, her recordings include Lessons in Love and Violence on DVD for Opus Arte and CD for Nimbus, a volume of Debussy’s songs with Malcolm Martineau on Hyperion and Elgar’s Une Voix dans le désert with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder.
Future engagements include returns to Covent Garden, Garsington Opera and Scottish Opera, her debut with English National Opera and concerts with the Academy of Ancient Music, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble intercontemporain.