Anne Sofie von Otter

Anne Sofie von Otter, the Swedish mezzo-soprano, ranks among the most adaptable vocalists active today, moving fluidly across opera from multiple periods and languages, art song, oratorio, rock, pop, and jazz. As a recitalist she has worked extensively with pianist Bengt Forsberg on programs noted for their rarity and inventiveness. Born in Stockholm on May 9, 1955, she grew up as the daughter of a Swedish diplomat, spending her early years in successive foreign postings that allowed her to acquire several languages. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under Vera Rosza, Erik Werba, and Geoffrey Parsons. In 1983 she entered the ensemble of the Basel Opera, making her first appearance there as Alcina in Haydn’s Orlando Paladino and taking on several trouser parts, among them the title role of Rossini’s Tancredi. For a period she concentrated on eighteenth-century opera, embracing the vigorous heroines of opera seria that regained favor toward the close of the twentieth century. After repeated auditions she also secured membership among the singers favored by conductor John Eliot Gardiner, appearing and recording with him in Handel’s Jephtha, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, and St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, as well as Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626. She has appeared at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London, and other leading European houses. Together with Forsberg she has issued well-received recitals, among them Terezin/Theresienstadt (2007), devoted to works composed by musicians interned in concentration camps. Her range has continued to widen; in 2016 she collaborated with the experimental group Brooklyn Rider on a program featuring pieces by Elvis Costello—with whom she had already issued a duet album—Björk, Nico Muhly, Kate Bush, and jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, with whom she recorded Love Songs in 2010. She has also explored standard Romantic lieder and Swedish art songs. In late 2018 she released A Simple Song, accompanied by Forsberg at the organ, on Sweden’s BIS label.