Barbara Franklin

Franklin, Barbara

Barbara Franklin (m Perkins). Soprano, actress, b Regina 14 Jun 1929, d Toronto 15 Feb 2009; LRCT 1954, Artist diploma (Toronto) 1954. A winner in 1950 of the CBC radio contest "Opportunity Knocks," and a student (summer 1954) of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at the Stratford Festival, Franklin first sang with the Royal Conservatory Opera as Marguerite in Faust (1951) and Papagena in The Magic Flute (1952). In 1952 she premiered Lorne Betts's Five Songs and gave the Canadian premiere of Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon with Glenn Gould's New Music Associates. In 1953 she was a soloist at the first Canadian League of Composers concert at Stratford. After appearances with the CBC Opera in Turandot, Gianni Schicchi, Rigoletto, and Arthur Benjamin's A Tale of Two Cities, she worked on CBC TV, singing in a vocal quartet on "Showtime with Howard Cable" in 1957, and singing on "Summer Showtime" (1958), and her own program "Country Style" (1960). She starred in Salad Days in Toronto 1955-6 and New York 1956-7, was Antigone in the film version of Oedipus Rex 1957, appeared in Spring Thaw 1958-9, and toured Canada 1960-6 in productions of Mr Scrooge, Carousel, South Pacific, and other musicals. Thereafter she continued her performing career as an actress, on stage and in TV, appearing on CBC TV's "Wayne and Shuster Hour" and as Jenny in the 1974 Theatre Calgary productions of Threepenny Opera. She continued acting in small roles for TV and film in the early 2000s.