Elisabeth Frandin was born in Helsinki, the daughter of Joseph-Hippolyte-Eugène Frandin and Pauline Lemagne. Her parents were French; her father was the French consul in Helsinki when she was born. Her older brother Joseph-Hippolyte Frandin (1852–1926), was a French diplomat in China, Korea, Colombia, and Ecuador.[2][3]
Frandin, who sang soprano and mezzo-soprano parts, made her professional debut in Paris in 1881, in Grissart's Les Poupées de l'Infante. Frandin sang in operas in Cairo, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Berlin, and many Italian cities. Her repertoire included roles in Lakmé by Delibes (1883),[5] Bizet's Carmen,[6] Verdi's Aida, Maillart's Les dragons de Villars, Auber's Le Domino Noir, Boito's Mefistofele, Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Massenet's Werther and La Navarraise (1895–1896),[7][8] and Leoncavallo's La bohème (1897).[9][10] She and Marie van Zandt were the first to sing the well-known Flower Duet from Lakmé, in Paris in 1883.[11]
Frandin survived a train accident in 1893, but lost all her theatrical luggage, including costumes and jewelry; she was compensated with ₤500,000 by the railway company. She retired from the stage when she married in 1897, and opened a music school in Milan.[4][12]
^Baptismal certificate of Elisa, "extracted from the original matriculation book of the Roman Catholic Church of
Helsingfors" relating to the birth and baptism of Elisabetta Frandin for the year 1865, 29th sheet under the number 10.
"The year 1865 of the 25th of April from my Chaplain of the troops placed in Finland, priest Father Ignazio Gorbatini (?) was baptized with all the ceremonies of the sacrament the little girl with the name of Elizabeth, daughter of the French consul Ippolito Frandin and his wife Polina nee Letagnian, legally married, born in Helsingfors on the 7th of the same month of April. Godparents were Arman de Borbone del Vilfer and Elisabetta Augusta Gutorinel de Perra. Also present were Pietre Devine and Adelaide Liten. The Imperial Consulate of Russia in Venice certifies the accuracy of this translation from Russian and French into Italian of the original faith.