Matthew Sprizzo

Renowned for her uncommonly charismatic personality, keen musical intelligence and expressive, highly individual voice, the Irish soprano FRANCES LUCEY’S North American career includes recitals at New York’s prestigious Frick Collection and Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre, as well as on Washington, D.C.’s Vocal Arts Society series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center series; several concerts with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall; Händel’s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Oregon Symphony, Mozart’s C Minor Mass with David Loebel and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s The Creation with the Florida Orchestra and the roles of Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Despina (Mozart’s Così fan tutte) and Rosalba (Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas) at the Seattle Opera. 

Ms. Lucey’s roles at Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz have included Sandrina in La Finta Giardiniera, Maria in West Side Story, Gabrielle in La vie parisienne, and Gretel in Hansel und Gretel. As a member of the Bavarian State Opera (at the invitation of Wolfgang Sawallisch), her roles included Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Gretel in Hansel und Gretel, and Atalanta in Xerxes. She also participated in the world-premiere performances of Hans-Jurgen von Bose’s Slaughterhouse Five. Other opera credits include the Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Stuttgart and Bonn Staatsopers.  In addition she has been guest soloist with the Munich Philharmonic, Japan's NHK Symphony, Südwestdeutsche Kammerorchester and Mozarteum Orchestra (the latter for Mahler #4 at the Salzburg Festival under Mto. Davies). Especially esteemed in her native Ireland, she earned particular praise for her performances of Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Marschner's Der Vampyr at the Wexford Festival. Her many concerts with Dublin's RTE Orchestra include a televised Carmina Burana and a much-acclaimed recording of C.V. Standford's Requiem. Her solo CD Off to Philadelphia, features Irish folksongs, Gershwin, Cole Porter & Spirituals. 

Recording of Stanford Requiem:
“Frances Lucey’s pure, radiant soprano and limpid diction set the standard for the well-blended, discreetly gentle quartet of soloists.”
                                                                                                                                                                            -Opera News 


Haydn’s The Creation with the Florida Orchestra:
“A trio of strong soloists didn’t hurt.  Soprano Frances Lucey sang with a freshness so critical to the role of Uriel.”
                                                                                                                                                                            -The Tampa Tribune


Mahler #4 with the Portland Symphony:
“Soprano Frances Lucey was warm and impassioned in the final movement of the Mahler, a childlike vision of heaven from the folk poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn.”
                                                                                                                                                                            -The Oregonian


Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera at the Munich Staatsoper:
“A soprano with a highly individual voice that is beyond merely beautiful in the high register.”
                                                                                                                                                                            -Süddeutsche Zeitung


Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Seattle Opera:
“It’s almost too much to expect that the second cast, in which every singer is replaced, could equal the first one in vocal and theatrical finesse.  But Sunday’s cast was very nearly there…Frances Lucey’s clever Despina”
                                                                                                                                                                            -The Seattle Times


Rosalba in Daniel Catán’s Florencia in the Amazons at the Seattle Opera:
“Frances Lucey’s sweet, lightly tremulous soprano in the role somehow perfectly suggests a life of sheltered bookishness.”     
                                                                                                                                                                            -Seattle Weekly


Recital on the Vocal Arts Society series in Washington, D.C.:
“Lucey has a voice that is light, clear and apparently without any upper limit. What caught and held the audience’s attention above all was a personality as bright, spontaneous, and joyful as a 10-year-old showing off for the grownups and having the time of her life. Under that charming surface, for connoisseurs to relish, was a keen musical intelligence with which she chose her songs with great care, skillfully mixing the familiar with the unfamiliar.”
                                                                                                                                                                            -The Washington Post 

 
Recital on the Frick Collection series in New York City:
“…a distinctiveness and allure that kept a listener riveted. Ms. Lucey’s greatest asset is a truly expressive personality.” 
                                                                                                                                                                            -The New York Times 
    
 
“From the first minutes of Irish soprano Frances Lucey’s North American debut concert at the Frick Collection it was clear that she turns nearly everything into a sparkling Fourth of July experience…Her musical ideas bloom everywhere—with the enthusiasm of first discovery…”