Marjorie Biggar

Biggar, Marjorie

Marjorie (May) Biggar. Mezzo-soprano, b Vancouver ca 1938; LRAM 1960, ARAM 1965. She studied with Scott Robertson in Vancouver, Jennie Tourel in Aspen, Colo, and Astra Desmond and Olive Groves at the RAM, London. She sang in England with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Sadler's Wells Opera, the English Opera, the Handel Opera Society, and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and in Brussels at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie; her roles included Amneris in Aida, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Emelia in Otello, Idamante in Idomeneo, Larina in Eugene Onegin, Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia, and the title role in Granville Bantock's The Seal Woman. She also toured in Great Britain with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. She has been heard over the BBC, the CBC, and the Belgian, German, and Swiss radio networks. She has given recitals in Europe and Canada and performed with major orchestras in London and with the NACO in Canada. In 1973 she toured the USA as a soloist with the Royal Choral Society. Returning to Canada in 1976, she settled in Vancouver but has continued to appear annually in England in oratorio and operatic concerts with the English conductor Richard Hickox. She has given concerts with the Amity Singers of Victoria, the Vancouver Chamber Choir, and the Vancouver Bach Choir. In 1991 she was teaching privately in Vancouver.