Anne Sophie von Otter

Internationally acclaimed Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter has long been considered one of the finest singers of her generation. A lengthy and exclusive relationship with Deutsche Grammophon produced a wealth of recordings and numerous awards including an International Record Critics’ Award (recording artist of the year), a Grammy Award (best classical vocal performance) for Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and a Diapason d’Or for a recording of Swedish songs with her long-time accompanist, Bengt Forsberg. She collaborated with pop legend Elvis Costello on the disc, For the Stars and in October 2010 released her first recording with the Naïve label, Love Songs, a collaboration with renowned jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. This was followed by her 2012 disc, Sogno Barocco – a collection of Italian baroque arias, scenes and duets with Leonardo García-Alarcón and Cappella Mediterranea – which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Her fourth recording for Naïve, Douce France, is a double CD of mélodies and chansons (released in October 2013).
Anne Sofie von Otter earned an international reputation as an outstanding Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) with performances at the Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris, and the Wiener Staatsoper. She also performed the role as part of a series of engagements with James Levine and The Metropolitan Opera, and in Japan under Carlos Kleiber (available on DVD). Other seminal opera recordings include Le nozze di Figaro under Levine, Idomeneo, La clemenza di Tito and Orfeo ed Euridice under John Eliot Gardiner, Handel’s Ariodante and Hercules under Marc Minkowski and Ariadne auf Naxos under Giuseppe Sinopoli.
Recent opera highlights have included Clytemnestre (Iphigenie en Aulide) in Pierre Audi’s production for De Nederlandse Opera conducted by Marc Minkowski (available on DVD), Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) under Philippe Jordan for Opéra national de Paris (available on DVD), Countess Geschwitz (Lulu) at The Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Fabio Luisi and her role debut in Charpentier’s Médeé for Oper Frankfurt. She appeared in Giulio Cesare at the 2012 Salzburg Festival with an all-star cast including Cecilia Bartoli and Andreas Scholl. In the 2013/14 season she appears in Christoph Marthaler’s production of Les contes d’Hoffmann at Madrid’s Teatro Real, in Götterdämmerung at Deutsche Oper Berlin under Sir Simon Rattle and in The Rake’s Progress at Theater an der Wien under Michael Boder. The diversity of this ever-evolving repertoire has played a key role in sustaining her international reputation as an operatic force.
A busy concert schedule takes Anne Sofie von Otter to all corners of the globe. Recent highlights include appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under David Robertson, the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert, the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Daniele Gatti, Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari Oramo. She performed Wesendonck Lieder with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Marc Minkowski and with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt under Paavo Järvi as part of the Wagner bicentenary. In 2011 she appeared with Jonas Kaufmann and the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado for a televised performance of Das Lied von der Erde on the one hundredth anniversary of Mahler’s death.