'STEPPING OUT'

THE CAPE ARGUS “TONIGHT” ON TUESDAY, 22 AUGUST 2006

Grouch is good By Derek Wilson

Take a look at Elizabeth Frandsen's extensive, opera-dominated CV and you wonder why she played the domineering ballet mistress in The Phantom of the Opera.And now she's the crotchety rehearsal pianist in Pieter Toerien's revival of the musical comedy, Stepping Out, which is running at the Theatre on the Bay. Her explanation for this is simple: "I just can't get any opera work." But there is a gritty determination there. "I must be on stage," she insists. "It's what I was born to do." This she decided on when she was two bricks and a tickey high. "My grandmother was an opera singer," she adds for emphasis, "and my mother used to sing." Though she was born in Cape Town, the family lived mostly in Johannesburg. But when she married, she and her husband moved to Cape Town. He is a former violinist. "But now he has a real job," she laughs. He is now in the security industry. Frandsen has a diploma in opera from the University of the Witwatersrand where, inter alia, she received vocal training from Joyce Barker and Emma Renzi as well as from the legendary Elizabeth Schwartzkopf at the Zurich International Opera School. Frandsen can sing in several languages, including Czech, Hungarian and Swedish. She has sung in many operas, has sung solo roles in many oratorios, singing the mezzo-soprano, soprano or alto parts. In musical theatre she has played Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld and, of course, she played Madame Giry, the ballet mistress in The Phantom of the Opera. She also took the role of Parthy in the first season of Cape Town Opera's touring production of Showboat. I have it on good authority that she gave a brilliant audition for the role that went to Vicky Sampson in the current production of We Will Rock You, now running at Art-scape. She has sung in concerts here and overseas and has taught voice and been an opera coach. Later this year she will sing here in Mozart's Requiem and Vivaldi's Gloria. "I have been well trained," she says almost unnecessarily. "I can do various things." An imposing woman, she is bright-eyed and fair-skinned and radiates intelligence. Only 32, she was aged up to play Mme Giry in Phantom, and again she plays an older woman, the grumpy Mrs Fraser, the rehearsal pianist in Stepping Out. "I don't like heroines," she admits. "I enjoy character roles. There is a dark side to me." Also in Stepping Out are Anne Power, Lindy Abromowitz, Brenda Radloff, David Vlok, Dawn Lindberg, Kathy-Jo Ross, Vicky Friedman, Michelle Levin and Slindile Nodangala. Stepping Out is about a hopeful dance teacher who tries to turn her students into a dance troupe. It was was made into a film by Lewis Gilbert in 1991, starring Liza Minnelli, Shelley Winters and Julie Walters. Discussing radio, Frandsen says she listens to Fine Music Radio, but also to Cape Talk to keep up with what is going on. Regarding her tastes in music, she likes a wide range, but adores jazz and baroque. "I love all the old standards in jazz," she says. "I listen to rock 'n roll and heavy metal too." Her dark side again. And though she doesn't consider herself a snob, she takes a dim view of rap. Like the late former Beatle George Harrison, who said "rap is crap," she thinks "rap is rubbish, just an indication of a degenerate society." Published on the web by Tonight on August 22, 2006.