Anne Sofie von Otter

Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter is one of today’s most-recorded artists with an exceptionally wide-ranging discography that spans the whole of a career lasting more than three decades. An exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon stretching back over many years has produced a wealth of acclaimed recordings, while her 2013 double CD Douce France received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

An ever-evolving repertoire has played a key role in sustaining Anne Sofie von Otter’s international career. Her most recent appearances have been as Leocadia Begbick in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Paris Opéra, Countess Geschwitz in Christoph Marthaler’s production of Lulu at the Hamburg State Opera and the Old Lady in Barrie Kosky’s staging of Candide at the Komische Oper in Berlin. She has also taken part in a number of world premieres, including Leonora in Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel at the 2016 Salzburg Festival (the production was revived at Covent Garden in 2017) and Charlotte in Sebastian Fagerlund’s Höstsonaten in Helsinki in 2017.

Much in demand as a concert artist, Anne Sofie von Otter has appeared in concert halls all over the world. Notable appearances include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Jonas Kaufmann and the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, a performance also broadcast on television, and a concert programme with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu, when she performed new arrangements of Sibelius songs to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Plans for 2019/20 include her role debut as the Countess in David Marton’s new production of The Queen of Spades at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, Zemlinsky’s Six Songs to words by Maurice Maeterlinck with the Helsinki Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki and song recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Anne Sofie von Otter will also premiere her new programme Ich wollt’, ich wär’ ein Huhn! that she has devised in association with Barrie Kosky and that features Berlin songs from the 1920s and 1930s.