| Voice/Instrument: |
Biography
Swedish soprano Nina Stemme (born May 11, 1963) is an opera singer renowned for her warm, solid spinto soprano voice, with some qualities of a dramatic soprano.
Parallel to her studies of business administration and economics at the University of Stockholm Nina Stemme followed a 2-years-course at the Stockholm Operastudio. Her debut as Cherubino in Cortona, Italy, in 1989 made Miss Stemme decide to follow a professional singer's career; her studies at the National College of Opera in Stockholm were completed in 1994. Next to two minor roles at the Royal Opera of Stockholm she had sung in the meantime Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Mimi (La bohème), Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and Diana (La fedeltà premiata by Haydn).
Two internationally acclaimed singing competitions (Plácido Domingo Competition and Cardiff Singer of the World) put the soprano on the international map of promising talents. As winner of the Domingo competition the famous tenor invited her to appear with him in a concert at La Bastille (1993); the same concert also took place on January 1, 1994 in Munich.
The Stockholm born soprano is in great demand at the major opera houses. Since her operatic debut as Cherubino in Cortona, Italy, she has appeared with many of the greatest opera companies of the world including Stockholm, the Vienna State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Geneva, Zürich, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York, and San Francisco Opera, as well as at the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Savonlinna, Glyndebourne and Bregenz festivals.
Her roles include Rosalinde, Mimi in La bohème, Cio-Cio-San in Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Suor Angelica, Euridice, Katerina in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Marguerite, Agathe, Marie, Nyssia (König Kandaules), Jenůfa, Marschallin, Eva, Elisabeth, Elsa, Senta, Sieglinde, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Isolde. This last brought her great critical acclaim at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2003, on disc for EMI Classics with Plácido Domingo, Antonio Pappano and the chorus and orchestra of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden released in 2005 and most recently at the Bayreuth Festival in 2005 and again in 2006. In 2007 Nina returns with the role of Isolde to Glyndebourne Festival Opera where she first made her Debut in the role.
In 2006, Nina Stemme made her highly successful role debut in the title role of Aida in a new production at Zürich Opera and recorded her first album as an exclusive artist for EMI Classics of Strauss's Four Last Songs and final scenes.
In 2008, the Swedish soprano replaced Deborah Voigt in what would have been the American soprano's role debut as Brünnhilde in the new Wiener Staatsoper Ring cycle conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. She sang the Siegfried Brünnhilde to great acclaim, although Eva Johansson is singing Brünnhilde for the Götterdämmerung being premiered next season. Stemme's official debut as Brünnhilde would have been premiered in the 2009-2010 season at the San Francisco opera under the leadership of Donald Runnicles.
Future engagements include amongst others, Arabella in Gothenburg, Ariadne auf Naxos at Geneva Opera, Leonore (La forza del destino) at Vienna State Opera, Amelia (Simon Boccanegra) at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Sieglinde in the new ring cycle at Vienna State Opera and in San Francisco, Salome at Geneva Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona and Teatro Real Madrid, Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Katerina Ismailova (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) at the Metropolitan Opera New York and her first Kundry (Parsifal) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. On the concert platform in 2006/7 she appeared in recital with Antonio Pappano (piano) in Barcelona and Dresden, in concert performances of Salome in Strasbourg and Paris and in recital at the Zurich opera.
