von Otter, Anne Sofie

▪ 2006

 As the Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter celebrated her 50th birthday in 2005, she continued to enjoy enormous success on the opera stage, in the concert hall, and on recordings. Stage appearances during the year included the role of Mélisande in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and her recording of Gustav Mahler's song cycle Kindertotenlieder, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez, received warm receptions from critics and listeners alike.

      Von Otter was born in Stockholm on May 9, 1955. Her father was a diplomat, and she grew up not only in Stockholm but also in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany, and in London. She studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then trained in lied performance. Her first affiliation was with the Basel (Switz.) Opera from 1983 to 1985, where she quickly gained distinction in works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss. She made her debut at London's Covent Garden in 1985 and at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1988, and she was soon singing in major opera houses and concert halls worldwide. Her repertoire was extraordinarily broad, ranging from the Baroque works of Claudio Monteverdi, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach to the music of 19th-century Romantics and 20th-century composers. With a small, pure lyric voice that was often described as “cool,” she was especially convincing in trouser roles, including Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel and Gretel, and Octavian in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. At the same time, she was known for adventurous programs of lieder, usually accompanied by pianist Bengt Forsberg, that included not only the mainstream repertoire by composers such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms but also songs by Alexander Zemlinsky, Alban Berg, Erich Korngold, Kurt Weill, and others. In addition, she recorded two acclaimed discs of songs by Nordic composers, Wings in the Night (1996) and Watercolours (2004). In 2001 she appeared in a concert in Stockholm commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize, with living laureates in attendance. That same year she issued For the Stars, a recording with pop star Elvis Costello that she called a project of “cross-pollination” and that included songs by the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

      She has received many honours, including being named the recording artist of the year (1990) by the International Record Critics Award, singer of the year by the Cannes Classical Awards (1995) and the Echo Awards (2001), and artist of the year by Gramophone (1996) and Diapason d'Or (1997) magazines. A number of her recordings also have received prizes.

Robert Rauch

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