Elisabeth Meister – what’s in a name?
“I was born in 1975 in Bristol, and christened Elizabeth Clare Kitchen. At eight years old, my paternal Grandpa died, and we suddenly uncovered a 47-year-old secret: my dad had been adopted in the 1930s, and his biological father’s surname was Franklin. We changed our family name to Franklin-Kitchen, in his honour.
Years later, on my mum’s side of the family, my Grandma passed away. She had always been a huge lover of classical music, and would come to my concerts whenever she was able. My operatic career began to take an upward turn, right at the time Grandma sadly died. Her name was Elisabeth Meister…“
Biography – please ask permission to use this biography
British soprano Elisabeth Meister’s career has seen her in the title roles Aïda and Lucrezia Borgia, as well as Elisabeth Tannhäuser for Santiago de Chile, title Turandot for Bilbao, title Lucrezia Borgia and Florinda Fierrabras for La Monnaie, Lady Macbeth Macbeth for Scottish Opera, Miss Wingrave Owen Wingrave for Toulouse, Erste Dama Die Zauberflöte and cover title Ariadne auf Naxos for Lyric Opera Chicago, and Sieglinde Die Walküre for Saffron Opera Group.
Her roles for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden include Pale Lady The Gambler, Fox The Cunning Little Vixen, High Priestess Aïda, Costanza L’isola Disabitata, Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte, Helmwige and cover Sieglinde Die Walküre, Third Norn Götterdämmerung, and Ker The Minotaur. In addition she has covered Polina The Gambler and Ellen Orford Peter Grimes, as well as the title roles Der Rosenkavalier, Aïda, Anna Nicole, Gloriana, and Turandot.
In concert, Elisabeth recently performed at the Royal Opera House’s Extraordinary Gala marking the Queen’s Jubilee alongside Roberto Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu and Bryn Terfel, and made her Carnegie Hall debut with performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. She has also performed at Buckingham Palace, The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, Segerstrom Hall, and many other prestigious venues around the world.
Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Elgar’s Caractacus, The Dream of Gerontius and The Kingdom, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Tippett’s A Child of our Time, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem, among many other works.
In February 2015 she wrote and presented a talk on the subject of The Beauty of the Human Voice for the international conference forum TEDx, at Warwick University. Later that year, Elisabeth formed the Meister Music Opera Platform – a series of workshops and performance platforms for singers wishing to develop their own professional practices.
In 2016, Elisabeth launched a personal development practice, designed to support people through the various transitional periods of their lives.