Anne Sofie von Otter

Anne Sofie von Otter is a respected mezzo-soprano known on her behalf versatility in operatic jobs, her interesting recital options, and her willingness to consider vocal dangers. Her dad was a Swedish diplomat whose profession took the family members to Bonn, London, and back again to Stockholm while Anne Sofie was developing up. Because of this, she obtained fluency in dialects. She researched music on the Guildhall College of Music and Crisis in London. Her primary voice instructor was Vera Rozsa, while Erik Werba and Geoffrey Parsons coached her in lieder interpretation. She obtained a contract using the Basle Opera in 1983 and continued to be with that business until 1985, debuting as Alcina in Franz Joseph Haydn’s Orlando Paladino. She also got several male jobs written for feminine mezzo-sopranos (that are known in operatic circles as “trousers” parts), including Cherubino in Mozart’s Relationship of Figaro, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and Orpheus in Gluck’s Orfée et Eurydice. In 1984 she debuted on the Aix-en-Provence Celebration as Ramiro in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Others of her trouser parts consist of Octavian in Strauss’ Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as the name function of Rossini’s Tancredi, amongst others. A high, statuesque woman, she actually is at house in various opera serie from the eighteenth hundred years, where alto voices consistently performed the heroes. She’s sung at Covent Backyard, La Scala, Berlin, Munich, Rome, and additional major opera homes. Another reason behind the high percentage of Baroque- and Classical-era operas in her repertory can be an essential working romantic relationship with conductor John Eliot Gardiner, a English conductor who started like a Baroque professional. She 1st auditioned for him in 1985, but didn’t get that promotion then. It had been only having a subsequent opportunity for him to listen to her that he started dealing with her. She’s became a member of him in recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo and Requiem; Monteverdi’s Favola d’Orfeo and L’Incoronazione di Poppea; Handel’s Agrippina and Jephtha; Gluck’s Orfée et Eurydice; and Bach’s Xmas Oratorio and St. Matthew Enthusiasm. He also carried out von Otter’s documenting of Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and chosen theater tunes. Significant recordings since 2000 consist of Terezin/Theresienstadt, music from your focus camp, and Boldemann, Gefors, Hillborg, modern Swedish orchestral tunes. Her other main artistic partner may be the Swedish pianist Bengt Forsberg, her recital partner. Forsberg is usually a respected scholar in neuro-scientific song literature, therefore von Otter depends on him to recommend tunes and organize the applications of her recitals. With him, she’s tended to focus on lieder from your periods around the start and end from the passionate period, including well received recordings of tunes by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Zemlinsky, Korngold, and Mahler aswell as the past due Intimate Nordic composers Alfvén, Rangstrom, Stenhammer, and Sibelius. She actually is a believer in performing tunes in the secrets the composers’ originally given. When she found record Kurt Weill’s Seven Fatal Sins she utilized the original edition for high soprano, a variety she possesses, as opposed to the once-traditional mezzo-soprano edition designed for Lotte Lenya past due for the reason that singer’s profession. Von Otter also documented Alban Berg’s Seven Early Tunes, also music that is clearly a strain for most high sopranos. Furthermore, she is not really averse to extending her tone of voice for dramatic impact. “I really believe in surprise results,” she once stated within an interview. Nevertheless, past the age group of 40 she got some particularly poor experiences due to both of these tendencies and, she admits, harm her voice. Because of this, she has made a decision to end up being “practical” and transpose down. She and her hubby stage developer Benny Frederiksson and reside in Stockholm with him and their two kids.