Biography

Von Otter was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was the diplomat Göran von Otter and she grew up in Bonn, London and Stockholm. After studying in Stockholm and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, she was engaged by the Basel Opera, where she made her operatic début in 1983 as Alcina in Haydn's Orlando paladino. She made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, début in 1985 and her La Scala debut in 1987. Her Metropolitan Opera début was in 1988 as Cherubino.

She has had notable success in roles of Mozart, Handel, and Monteverdi. In recitals, she excels in the music of Mahler, Brahms, Grieg, Wolf and Sibelius. Her recording of Grieg songs won the 1993 Gramophone Record of the Year, the first time in the award's history that it had gone to a song recording. In 2001 she released an album with Elvis Costello, for which she won an Edison Award. Among the conductors she has worked with repeatedly are William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner, and Myung-Whun Chung. Most of her recitals and many of her recordings have been collaborations with Swedish pianist Bengt Forsberg. In 2003, von Otter was awarded a Rolf Schock Prize in the musical arts category.

In 2006, von Otter sang the Evangelist in the premiere of Sven-David Sandström's Ordet - en passion, on 24 March in Stockholm.

In 2007, she released a highly praised album of music written by composers imprisoned in the Nazi "model" ghetto of Theresienstadt concentration camp (also known as Terezin) prior to their transportation to the death camp of Auschwitz. She collaborated on this project with Christian Gerhaher (baritone) and chamber musicians. She has explained that the material has special personal meaning for her as her father, a Swedish diplomat in Berlin during World War II, had attempted unsuccessfully during the war to spread information that he had received from SS officer Kurt Gerstein about the Nazi death camps.

She is married to Benny Fredriksson, an actor and theatre director, and has two children.

Awards

• 1995: appointed Hovsångerska by H.M. the King of Sweden

Discography

Selective charting albums

Year	Album	Peak positions
		SWE	GER	NED	NOR
1993	Grieg Songs (DG)	46	-	-	-
1994	Speak Low	25	-	-	-
1999	Home For Christmas	16	-	72	-
2001	For the Stars	25	59	80	33
2006	I Let The Music Speak	13	-	63	-
	Noël	59	-	-	-
2007	Terezín / Theresienstadt	56	-	-	-
2010	Ombre de mon amant	32	-	-	-
	Love Songs	34	-	-	-
2013	Douce France	58	-	-	-

Recordings

Lieder and songs

• Alban Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder & Der Wein conducted by Claudio Abbado (1995) Deutsche Grammophon
• Hector Berlioz: Mélodies with Cord Garben (piano) (1994) and Les nuits d'été conducted by James Levine (1995) Deutsche Grammophon
• Hector Berlioz: Les nuits d'été conducted by Marc Minkowski (2011) Naïve
• Johannes Brahms: Lieder with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (1990) Deutsche Grammophon
• Cécile Chaminade: Mots d'amour with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (2001) Deutsche Grammophon
• Edvard Grieg: Songs/Lieder with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (1993) Deutsche Grammophon
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Rendezvous with Korngold with Bengt Forsberg (piano) & Friends (1999) Deutsche Grammophon
• Ingvar Lidholm: Songs and Chamber Music conducted by Björn Sjögren (1996) Caprice Records
• Gustav Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Thomas Quasthoff conducted by Claudio Abbado (1999) Deutsche Grammophon
• Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder conducted by Pierre Boulez (2004) Deutsche Grammophon
• Maurice Ravel: Shéhérazade conducted by Pierre Boulez (2002) Deutsche Grammophon
• Arnold Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder conducted by Simon Rattle (2002) EMI
• Franz Schubert: Lieder, with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (1997) and Lieder with Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado (2003) Deutsche Grammophon
• Robert Schumann: Frauenliebe und -leben with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (1995) Deutsche Grammophon
• Jean Sibelius: Anne Sofie von Otter sings Sibelius with Bengt Forsberg (piano) BIS
• Kurt Weill: Speak Low: Songs by Kurt Weill conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1994) Deutsche Grammophon
• Hugo Wolf: Spanisches Liederbuch with Olaf Bär (baritone) and Geoffrey Parsons (piano) (1995) EMI
• various: Boldemann Gefors Hillborg conducted by Kent Nagano (2008) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: La Bonne chanson - French Chamber Songs with Bengt Forsberg (piano) and others (1996) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Brahms / Schumann with Barbara Bonney (soprano), Kurt Streit (tenor), Olaf Bär (baritone), Helmut Deutsch and Bengt Forsberg (piano duet) (1994) EMI
• various: Douce France - classical French songs (disc 1) and chansons (disc 2) with Bengt Forsberg (piano) and others (2013) Naive
• various: Folksongs with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (2000) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Lieder / Mélodies by Beethoven Meyerbeer Spohr with Melvyn Tan (fortepiano) (2001) Archiv
• various: Lieder by Wolf and Mahler with Ralf Gothóni (piano) (1989) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Love's Twilight - Late Romantic Songs by Berg Korngold Strauss with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (1994) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Mahler Zemlinsky Lieder conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1996) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Mozart - Haydn: Songs & Canzonettas with Melvyn Tan (fortepiano) (1995) Archiv
• various: Music for a While - Baroque Melodies (2004) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Terezín / Theresienstadt with Bengt Forsberg (piano), Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber (piano) and others (2007) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Watercolours - Swedish Songs with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (2003) Deutsche Grammophon
• various: Wings in the Night - Swedish Songs with Bengt Forsberg (piano) (1996) Deutsche Grammophon

Complete operas

• Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle conducted by Bernard Haitink (1996) EMI
• Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust conducted by Myung-whun Chung (1998) Deutsche Grammophon
• Bizet: Carmen conducted by Philippe Jordan (2003) BBC/Arte
• Gluck: Alceste conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner (1990) Philips
• Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner (1990) Erato
• Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner (1989) EMI
• Handel: Agrippina conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner (1997) Philips
• Handel: Ariodante conducted by Marc Minkowski (1999) Archiv
• Handel: Giulio Cesare conducted by Marc Minkowski (2003) Archiv
• Handel: Hercules conducted by Marc Minkowski (2002) Archiv
• Handel: Serse by conducted by William Christie (2004) Virgin Classics
• Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel conducted by Jeffrey Tate(1989/1990) EMI
• Massenet: Werther conducted by Kent Nagano (1997) Elektra
• Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1996) Archiv
• Monteverdi: L'Orfeo conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1987) Archiv
• Mozart: La clemenza di Tito conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1993) Deutsche Grammophon
• Mozart: Così fan tutte conducted by Georg Solti (1996) Decca
• Mozart: Idomeneo conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1991) Deutsche Grammophon
• Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine (1992) Deutsche Grammophon
• Purcell: Dido and Aeneas conducted by Trevor Pinnock (1989) Archiv
• Rachmaninoff: Aleko conducted by Neeme Järvi (1997) Deutsche Grammophon
• Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli (2002) Deutsche Grammophon
• Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Bernard Haitink (1991) EMI
• Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Carlos Kleiber (1995) Deutsche Grammophon DVD only
• Igor Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (1999) Deutsche Grammophon
• Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin conducted by James Levine (1988) Deutsche Grammophon

Aria recordings

• Anne Sofie von Otter sings Offenbach, conducted by Marc Minkowski - Deutsche Grammophon
• Baroque Arias by Handel, Monteverdi, Roman and Telemann, with the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble - Proprius
• Ombre de mon amant, French baroque arias conducted by William Christie - Archiv
• Opera Arias by Gluck, Haydn and Mozart, conducted by Trevor Pinnock - Archiv

Oratorios, symphonies, etc

• Bach: St Matthew Passion English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
• Bach: St Matthew Passion Chicago Symphony, Sir Georg Solti; Kiri Te Kanawa, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Tom Krause, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, with Luba Orgonasova, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Gilles Cachemaille, the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner
• Maurice Duruflé: "Requiem", conducted by Michel Plasson - EMI
• Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius, with Alastair Miles and David Rendall, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
• Handel: Jephtha, with Michael Chance, Lynne Dawson and Stephen Varcoe, with the English Baroque Soloists conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner
• Handel: Messiah, with Arleen Auger, Michael Chance, Howard Crook and John Tomlinson, with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert
• Handel: Messiah, with Sylvia McNair, Michael Chance, Jerry Hadley and Robert Lloyd, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
• Mauricio Kagel: Sankt-Bach-Passion, conducted by the composer - Naïve
• Mahler: Symphony No. 3, conducted by Pierre Boulez - Deutsche Grammophon
• Mozart: Requiem: Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner - Archiv
• Mozart: Great Mass in C minor: Barbara Bonney, Anne Sofie von Otter, English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner
• Franz Schubert: Rosamunde with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Claudio Abbado

Other music

• Home for Christmas, classical works and popular tunes for Christmas (1999) Deutsche Grammophon
• For the Stars, a collection of rock and pop songs (by the likes of Brian Wilson, Andersson-Ulvaeus and Lennon-McCartney), with Elvis Costello and Svante Henryson (2001) Deutsche Grammophon
• Peter Sculthorpe: Island Dreaming, with the Brodsky Quartet (2001) Challenge Records
• I Let the Music Speak - Songs of ABBA including "Money, Money, Money" and "The Winner Takes It All" (2006) Deutsche Grammophon
• Noel, classical Christmas music with Bengt Forsberg (2006) Deutsche Grammophon
• Love Songs, with Brad Mehldau (2010) Naïve
• Ottorino Respighi: Il tramonto, with the Brodsky Quartet - Vanguard

[ Source: Wikipedia ]