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Anne Sofie von Otter is a leading mezzo-soprano known for her versatility in operatic roles, her interesting recital choices, and her willingness to take vocal risks. Her father was a Swedish diplomat whose career took the family to Bonn, London, and back to Stockholm while Anne Sofie was growing up. As a result, she gained fluency in languages. She studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her main voice teacher was Vera Rozsa, while Erik Werba and Geoffrey Parsons coached her in lieder interpretation.

She gained a contract with the Basle Opera in 1983 and remained with that company until 1985, debuting as Alcina in Franz Joseph Haydn's Orlando Paladino. She also took several male roles written for female mezzo-sopranos (which are known in operatic circles as "trousers" parts), including Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Hänsel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, and Orpheus in Gluck's Orfée et Eurydice.

In 1984 she debuted at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Ramiro in Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera. Others of her trouser parts include Octavian in Strauss' Rosenkavalier, the Composer in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, and the title role of Rossini's Tancredi, among others. A tall, statuesque woman, she is at home in numerous opera serie of the eighteenth century, in which alto voices routinely played the heroes. She has sung at Covent Garden, La Scala, Berlin, Munich, Rome, and other major opera houses.

Another reason for the high proportion of Baroque- and Classical-era operas in her repertory is an important working relationship with conductor John Eliot Gardiner, a British conductor who began as a Baroque specialist. She first auditioned for him in 1985, but failed to make an impression then. It was only with a subsequent chance for him to hear her that he began working with her. She has joined him in recordings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; Mozart's Clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo and Requiem; Monteverdi's Favola d'Orfeo and L'Incoronazione di Poppea; Handel's Agrippina and Jephtha; Gluck's Orfée et Eurydice; and Bach's Christmas Oratorio and St. Matthew Passion. He also conducted von Otter's recording of Weill's Seven Deadly Sins and selected theater songs. Significant recordings since 2000 include Terezin / Theresienstadt, music from the concentration camp, and Boldemann, Gefors, Hillborg, contemporary Swedish orchestral songs.

Her other major artistic partner is the Swedish pianist Bengt Forsberg, her recital partner. Forsberg is a leading scholar in the field of song literature, so von Otter relies on him to suggest songs and organize the programs of her recitals. With him, she has tended to specialize in lieder from the periods around the beginning and end of the romantic period, including well received recordings of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Zemlinsky, Korngold, and Mahler as well as the late Romantic Nordic composers Alfvén, Rangstrom, Stenhammer, and Sibelius.

She is a believer in singing songs in the keys the composers' originally specified. When she came to record Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins she used the original version for high soprano, a range she possesses, rather than the once-traditional mezzo-soprano version made for Lotte Lenya late in that singer's career. Von Otter also recorded Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs, also music that is a strain for many high sopranos. In addition, she is not averse to stretching her voice for dramatic effect. "I believe in shock effects," she once said in an interview. However, past the age of 40 she had some particularly bad experiences as a result of these two tendencies and, she admits, hurt her voice. As a result, she has decided to be "sensible" and transpose down.

She and her husband stage designer Benny Frederiksson and live in Stockholm with him and their two children. - Joseph Stevenson

This is a CD transfer of Anne Sofie von Otter’s first solo recording, made in 1983 in Stockholm. The transfer includes all the items from the LP plus the Agnus Dei from Roman’s Swedish Mass, which von Otter recorded complete that year. Evidently her recital LP was never properly available in the UK, so this CD issue might be the first time that the UK has had a chance to hear this delightful record.

Admittedly the running time is rather short; even with the additional item it still runs at only 47 minutes. But it gives us the opportunity to hear von Otter at the start of her amazing career.

Her voice is a little lighter than it is now and perhaps the flexibility does not come as easily nowadays. Also her characterisation and sheer musicality have developed in the twenty odd years since this disc, but it is amazing how much of the mature singer is available here. And it is lovely to have such confident art and strong characterisation allied to her expressively flexible voice.

She opens with Dejanira’s big scene from Handel’s Hercules, and manages to combine technical skill with powerful emotions and in a pretty arresting manner. In an amazing tour de force, she follows with the a bleakly expressive Piangero from Handel’s Giulio Cesare, commandeering Cleopatra’s part in a way that the older von Otter would perhaps find tricky, giving us a vocal line which combines clarity with malleability. In both English and Italian, her way with words is idiomatic and vivid.

She follows this with two charming songs from Monteverdi’s Scherzi Musicali. Perhaps she is a little too much concerned with beauty of vocal tone, rather than expressing the words, for these to be ideal. And the lament from Arianna is profoundly moving without being completely heart-wrenching.

Then comes the charming Agnus Dei from Roman’s Swedish Mass. Roman was the first really important Swedish composer and the first to arrange public concerts in Sweden. He was concerned to create music using the Swedish language; Agnus Dei comes from his mass setting of 1750 which sets the Swedish version of the text.

The accompaniment is delicately Mozartian, the results charming and moving in a low key way. Von Otter sings it in a simple and expressive manner. 

There then follows Telemann’s Canary Cantata; his Funeral Music for an artistic Canary. The piece is intended to be a humorous satire and Von Otter exploits the piece to maximum effect. Not everyone will like her quasi-operatic way with the music but the results are undeniably effective. Von Otter obviously relishes the opportunity the piece gives her, variously milking the vocal line for over-expressiveness, spitting consonants unmercifully and expressively spinning out the vocal line. 

The final item is another piece of commandeering, this time Where’er you walk from Semele. I’m not completely convinced by this, attractive though it is. I miss the edge that a fine tenor can bring to the vocal line.

This is a charming recital and essential listening for those who have followed Von Otter’s career. If you’ve got her later recordings then you’ll definitely want this one. - Robert Hugill

This listing is for a rare audiophile CD - a USED / OPENED CD, in Near MINT minus overall condition PRESSED and ISSUED by PROPRIUS (of Sweden) of a highly collectible title from their CD catalog, featuring -

Anne Sofie von Otter / Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble

Performers -

Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano

Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble

CD Title & Track Listing -

Anne Sofie von Otter

1. Hercules, HWV 60, Act III: Accompagnato: Where shall I fly? Where hide this guilty head? - Composed By – Georg Friedrich Händel - 5:24
2. Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, Act III: Recitative: E pur cosi in un giorno - Composed By – Georg Friedrich Händel - 6:23
Scherzi musicali, SV 230-245 (excerpts) - Composed By – Claudio Monteverdi
3. O rosetta, che rosetta, SV 237 - 1:48
4. La violetta ch'en su l'herbetta, SV 240 - 3:06
5. Lamento d'Arianna, SV 22: 1a parte - Lasciatemi morire - Composed By – Claudio Monteverdi - 3:42
6. Svenska Massan (Swedish Mass): Aria: O Herre Gud Guds Lamb (Lord God, Lamb of God) - Composed By – Johan Helmich Roman - 3:28
7. Kanarienvogel-Kantate - Composed By – Georg Philipp Telemann - 15:07         
8. Semele, HWV 58, Act II: Aria: Where'er you walk - Composed By – Georg Friedrich Händel - 4:03

The CD is from the ultra-rare PROPRIUS series of audiophile CDs.

  • CD catalog # PRCD 9008
  • Recordings are from 1990 - comes with the cardboard outer sleeve
  • CD made in SWEDEN
  • CD issued in 1995

The CD, JEWEL CASE AND INSERTS are all in near mint minus overall condition! The CD may have a couple of very light marks on the reflective side of the disc, nothing serious. It was play tested in our audio system and it performed perfectly.

This CD is an audiophile quality pressing (any collector of fine MFSL, half speeds, direct to discs, Japanese/UK pressings etc., can attest to the difference a quality pressing can make to an audio system).

Do not let this rarity slip by!