Opera Scotland

Janice Cairns Suggest updates

Born Ashington 1954.

English soprano.

Janice Cairns trained at the RSAMD in Glasgow and spent a season or so (1976-77) as a member of the Scottish Opera Chorus. After studying with Tito Gobbi she made her debut, while still a student, singing Desdemona at Salonica.

In 1980 her debut with Kent Opera was as Alice Ford. With ENO from 1982 she sang Musetta, Ariadne, Female Chorus, Eva, Butterfly, Maria (in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa), Aïda, Lisa, Tosca, and Amelia (in both Simon Boccanegra and A Masked Ball).

With Scottish Opera she appeared in leading roles in Il trovatore, Aïda, Madama Butterfly, and Oberon. With Opera North in 1990 she sang Hélène in the first British production of Verdi's Jérusalem. Other roles in her repertoire included Donna Anna, Leonore, Odabella, Leonora di Vargas and Maddalena in Andrea Chénier.