<title><![CDATA[LΓÇÖincoronazione di Poppea 1]]></title>
<title_animated/>
</track>
<track file="mont1_6_2">
<title><![CDATA[LΓÇÖincoronazione di Poppea 2]]></title>
<title_animated/>
</track>
<track file="mont3_7">
<title><![CDATA[LΓÇÖincoronazione di Poppea 3]]></title>
<title_animated/>
</track>
</tracks>
<buttons>
<listen><![CDATA[Listen...]]></listen>
</buttons>
</tracks>
<pages>
<copy><![CDATA[No singer has had a more distinguished career over the past 15 years, either on the operatic stage or the recital platform, than the Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. Her voice, which is both pure and rich, is perhaps too consistent, even flawless, to be immediately recognisable by its timbre: it sounds exactly like a mezzo-soprano should sound. What is entirely distinctive, however, is the intelligence and emotional directness of her singing, which combines an alert sensitivity to words with the ability to colour the voice to convey their meaning. Extraordinary, too, is the sheer range of her repertoire, which covers not only the core 18th and 19th century Austro-German lieder and operatic roles, but extends back to Handel and Monteverdi and forward to Debussy, Ravel, Bartók and Stravinsky, all of which she sings with a notable sense of their particular styles and a mastery of the sounds of their languages. Listen, for instance, to her control of the line in the second movement of Ravel’s Shéhérazade (the first clip here), and to the way the line is animated by her delivery of the text. When she comes to the Barbican this month (with René Jacobs conducting Concerto Vocale) to perform Ottavia in Monteverdi’s final and most sensual opera, L’incoronazione di Poppea, this will be a reminder that, at the start of her career, she was very much a baroque specialist and, amazingly, one who harboured no operatic ambitions at all. “At that stage I was a very shy performer and I would have been happy to stay with my oratorio work for the rest of my career,” she says. “Opera didn’t interest me, and I didn’t know anything about it. But I did get in touch with a couple of agents and they said that I had to do opera because that’s how you earn a living. And if you’re keen to do lieder, you do lieder as well, but that’s not how you earn your money. So, it was thanks to my agents and to my singing teacher in London, Vera Rosza, that I got into opera. And it was very good for me.” Surely, though, once she did hit the stage, it seemed a natural environment for her? “In a way, yes, and in a way, no. I had lots of difficulties overcoming my shyness, but I had to force myself. You know, I have my limits as an actress, but I do try hard. Now I really enjoy being on stage, but it was sweaty work for the first <br><br>five to 10 years.” One milestone was playing Octavian in the early 1990s in Otto Schenk’s famous Vienna production of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, conducted by Carlos Kleiber. Watching a recording of that production, it is difficult to believe that she had to overcome any problems as a stage performer, so convincingly does she convey the quickfire ardour of the 17-year-old boy and so much does she relish the farce of the scenes in which Octavian is disguised as a chambermaid. “It was important for my career to have done it, to have been one of the few, the chosen few, to have been lucky enough to have worked with Kleiber. He showed me what Rosenkavalier should sound like and I’ve had great difficulties doing it with anyone else since, because I think his way was absolutely the right way: with that kind of energy and youthfulness, yet bittersweet. He understood the music and the libretto so well, and he had a way with the orchestra that was totally exceptional. It’s almost a scandal that not more conductors work as hard with the orchestras, but I guess they don’t know how to. It was magical.” That production of Rosenkavalier was very traditional, but von Otter is not one of those singers eager to denounce the vagaries of more “conceptual” directors. “Sometimes, if they’re clever, they can do the strangest things and it can be absolutely wonderful. I’m not against doing strange things with opera, because we have to. We can’t keep putting on the Marriage of Figaro in the same way all the<br>time, it’s just not interesting enough – not to me, anyway.” But isn’t there often these days a conflict between what is happening on stage and what is happening in the music? “Certainly, but that can be interesting if what’s going on on stage goes totally against the music – when it’s intelligent. But not every director is clever enough. I think one has to experiment. An opera house shouldn’t do everything upside down, but if they have a go every now and then, that can be rewarding.” Are there particular things she looks for in choosing an operatic role, or does the width of her repertoire merely reveal her liking for variety? “I love learning new music, and I’m always searching for interesting roles, but there aren’t many for my voice, and most of them I’ve already done. So, I’ve done most of the trouser roles – and anyway, singing trouser roles isn’t so interesting when you're middle-aged and have had some experience. When you’re not so young any more, then it’s good to go on and do other things like the Carmen I did at Glyndebourne, which was a real piece of theatre. “I wish there were more female portraits that were really interesting. I would love to do the more juicy, more dirty operas like Janacek’s Katya Kabanova or Jenufa – operas about real people who suffer and have dirt under their nails. But there aren’t any roles for me in that kind of opera.” Has she come under the traditional pressure for mezzo-sopranos of being asked to do soprano roles? “Occasionally you get a conductor or director who wants you to do strange things. I’ve been asked by a director to sing Isolde and I’ve been asked by a conductor to sing Leonora, but the opera houses themselves are almost boringly consistent in what they ask you for. But it’s up to you to reinvent yourself. Leonora I was tempted by, and I had a good look at it, but Isolde was pure nonsense – not for me at all. “I am looking at some other Wagner roles, the lighter ones, just so I have somewhere to go. Brangaene in Tristan might be possible, and maybe Fricka in Die Walküre.” Perhaps Magdalene in Meistersinger? “No, no. I love singing too much, and even if they put Magdalene on the stage for five hours, it’s not the same thing. Again, I’ve been offered Countess Geschwitz in Berg’s Lulu. That’s quite a good role to act, but you look at the score and there are about four phrases for her to sing, which would be pretty frustrating for me. At this point in my career I still want to have more to sing.” Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di Poppea, with Concerto Vocale conducted by<br>René Jacobs, Oct 25, Barbican Hall, London; 020 7638 8891. Click <a href="asfunction:Tardis.webPageOpen,http://www.barbican.org.uk/greatperformers/operas.htm"><b>here</b></a> for details and to book tickets. The excerpts from L’incoronazione di Poppea come from von Otter’s recording of the work with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and her Shéhérazade is from Ravel’s Shéhérazade/Le Tombeau de Couperin/Pavane pour une infante défunte, conducted by Pierre Boulez The featured excerpts from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea are as follows:<b>Tracks 1 and 2</b> are taken from the fifth scene, Disprezzata Regina.<b>Track 3</b> is from the seventh scene, A Dio, Roma! A Dio Patria! Amici, a Dio.Picture, right: Denise Grünstein/DGG]]></copy>
<quote><![CDATA[In the BarbicanΓÇÖs Coronation of Poppea, Anne Sofie von Otter will prove to be the real queen. By Stephen Everson]]></quote>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
</page>
<page type="2">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote/>
<image>
<image><![CDATA[../arts/anne/page3.jpg]]></image>
<caption><![CDATA[René Jacobs]]></caption>
<note><![CDATA[Alvaro Yanez]]></note>
</image>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
</page>
<page type="6">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote/>
<image>
<image><![CDATA[../arts/anne/page4.jpg]]></image>
<caption><![CDATA[Barbara Bonney and von Otter in Otto Schenk's landmark production of Der Rosenkavalier]]></caption>
<note><![CDATA[ Axel Zeininger / Vienna State Opera]]></note>
</image>
</page>
<page type="1">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote><![CDATA[ΓÇÿThe agents all said that I had to do opera because thatΓÇÖs how you earn a livingΓÇÖ]]></quote>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
</page>
<page type="6">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote/>
<image>
<image><![CDATA[../arts/anne/page6.jpg]]></image>
<caption><![CDATA[ΓÇÿCarlos Kleiber showed me what Rosenkavalier should sound like and IΓÇÖve had difficulties doing it with anyone sinceΓÇÖ]]></caption>
<note><![CDATA[ Christina Burton / ArenaPAL]]></note>
</image>
</page>
<page type="2">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote/>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
</page>
<page type="2">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote/>
<image>
<image><![CDATA[../arts/anne/page8.jpg]]></image>
<caption/>
<note><![CDATA[Jim Rakete / DGG]]></note>
</image>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
<image>
<image/>
<caption/>
<note/>
</image>
</page>
<page type="2">
<headline><![CDATA[Crowning glory]]></headline>
<quote/>
<image>
<image><![CDATA[../arts/anne/page9.jpg]]></image>
<caption><![CDATA[The ice queen melts: von Otter as Carmen]]></caption>
