About
In demand by every major opera house and festival, the lyric beauty of Karita Mattila’s voice and her innate sense of theatre set her apart as one of the most sought-after dramatic sopranos in the world today.
Current season opera highlights include Begbick (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at Festival d’Aix, Foreign Princess (Rusalka) conducted by Susanna Mälkki for Opéra national de Paris, and First Prioress (Dialogues des Carmelites) under Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the Metropolitan Opera. She reprises the role of Kostelnička (Jenůfa) for Bayerisches Staatsoper under Simone Young and creates the role of Plotina in Rufus Wainwright’s new opera, Hadrian, for Canadian Opera Company. She gives recitals with Ville Matvejeff at the Oslo Opera House and with Evgeny Kissin at the Verbier Festival.
In addition to two Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under Sir George Solti and Jenůfa under Bernard Haitink – Ms Mattila has many recordings to her credit, highlights of which include Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder under Claudia Abbado on Deutsche Grammophon, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder and Shostakovich’s Symphony No.14 with Sir Simon Rattle on EMI, and her 40th birthday concert in front of an audience of 12,000 in Helsinki on Ondine.