Frigara was born in
Lille and studied under
Charles Dancla,
Lambert Massart and
Benjamin Godard at the
Paris Conservatoire. He first conducted at the theatre in Lille in 1895, and also taught at the Conservatoire in the city. He worked in Antwerp then Cairo in 1898. For five years he was at the
Théâtre Graslin in Nantes, and conducted in Marseille and Lyon, in the latter leading productions of
Der Ring des Nibelungen,
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,
Gwendoline and
Pantagruel (
Claude Terrasse). In 1917 he was music director at the Théâtre Trianon-Lyrique in Paris, concentrating on the late 18th and early 19th century repertoire, while also at times conducting the
Concerts Lamoureux. He was considered a conscientious, precise and sometimes dry interpreter. Around this time the American violinist and band leader
Enoch Light studied with Frigara in Paris. In 1934 Frigara conducted the premiere of
Fragonard by Pierné at the
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin. He died in Paris, aged 80. ==Recordings==