Nina Stemme

Nina Stemme is a Swedish soprano who made her operatic debut in Cortona, Italy, in 1989, and has since performed most of the major roles in her vocal range. In 1994 she graduated from the National College of Opera in Stockholm, but had by that time already won the Operalia World Opera Competition, and performed with Plácido Domingo at concerts at La Bastille in 1993 and 1994. Early in her career, Stemme sang the roles of Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Mimi in Puccini's La bohème, Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and Rosalinde in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. She has performed around the world at such opera houses as the Royal Swedish Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Vienna State Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. Among the important roles she has made her own are Puccini's Tosca and Manon Lescaut, Richard Strauss' Salome, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Wagner's heroines, including Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and most notably Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, which she has performed at Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, and at Bayreuth. She has recorded the part of Isolde twice, once for EMI, singing with Domingo and conducted by Antonio Pappano, and on PentaTone, singing with Stephen Gould and conducted by Marek Janowski. Other Wagnerian heroines she has performed are Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Elsa in Lohengrin, and Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen in San Francisco. She has also sung the part of Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio, Marie in Berg's Wozzeck, and Maria in Sandström's Ordet.