__NOTOC__ Erika Sunnegårdh (born March 11, 1966) is a Swedish

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

tic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

. She lived for many years in New York, where she made a much reported debut at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

in 2006.

Early life and education

Erika Sunnegårdh was born in

Danderyd Danderyd Municipality (''Danderyds kommun''; ) is a municipality north of Stockholm in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. It is one of the smallest municipalities of Sweden, but the most affluent. Its seat is located in Djursholm and it is ...

Stockholm County Stockholm County ( sv, Stockholms län, link=no ) is a county or '' län'' (in Swedish) on the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden. It borders Uppsala County and Södermanland County. It also borders Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. The city of Stockholm ...

. Her parents were both prominent voice teachers: her father, Arne Sunnegårdh, worked with

Birgit Nilsson Märta Birgit Nilsson (17 May 1918 – 25 December 2005) was a celebrated Swedish dramatic soprano. Although she sang a wide répertoire of operatic and vocal works, Nilsson was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner a ...

and

Jussi Björling Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling ( , ; 5 February 19119 September 1960) was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th century, Björling appeared for many years at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and less frequentl ...

and was chorus master at the

Royal Swedish Opera Royal Swedish Opera ( sv, Kungliga Operan) is an opera and ballet company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Location and environment The building is located in the center of Sweden's capital Stockholm in the borough of Norrmalm, on the eastern side ...

Ole Rothenborg
"Rösten som bara växte och växte"
''

Dagens Nyheter ''Dagens Nyheter'' (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record. History and profile ''Da ...

'', September 11, 2004 and a professor at the Stockholm Conservatory, and her mother, Margareta Backer-Sunnegårdh, was a

coloratura soprano A coloratura soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that specializes in music that is distinguished by agile runs, leaps and trills. The term '' coloratura'' refers to the elaborate ornamentation of a melody, which is a typical component o ...

.Clas Barkman
"Sopranen som misstror det perfekta"
''Dagens Nyheter'', July 16, 2006 Her half-brother Thomas Sunnegårdh is a tenor. As a student in Sweden Erika Sunnegårdh attended

Adolf Fredrik's Music School Adolf Fredrik's Music School ( sv, Adolf Fredriks Musikklasser) is a general municipal junior high school ( sv, grundskola) in Stockholm, Sweden with a focus on choral music, and highly competitive admission based on audition in singing and mu ...

in Stockholm. She lived in the U.S. for 23 years starting in 1985;Marcus Boldemann
"Skönsång"
''Dagens Nyheter'', February 7, 2007 she moved there at 19 to dance, graduated from the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

in 1992 and earned an M.A. from the

Aaron Copland School of Music The Aaron Copland School of Music is one of the oldest departments at Queens College, founded when the College opened in 1937. The department's curriculum was originally established by Edwin Stringham, and a later emphasis on the analytical sys ...

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

, and worked as a waitress, caterer and tour guide in New York, singing at recitals and as a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

.Daniel J. Wakin
"Stepping Onstage as a Waitress, She May Exit the Met as a Star"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', April 1, 2006.

Career

Sunnegårdh made her operatic debut in September 2004 at the

Malmö Opera Malmö Opera ( Swedish: ''Malmö opera'') is an opera house in Malmö, Sweden. An opera company of the same name presents seasons of opera in this house. Built 1933-1944 by architect Sigurd Lewerentz and, until 1992, known as the Malmö City Th ...

Puccini Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long lin ...

's ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is "Nessun dorma", whi ...

''. She subsequently sang ''Turandot'' again in Sweden, gave orchestral concerts there, and performed the title role in

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with ...

'' with the

Florentine Opera The Florentine Opera Company is one of Wisconsin's oldest professional performing arts centers and the sixth-oldest opera company in the United States. The company presents three to five staged productions per season largely from the standard ope ...

in Milwaukee. Having already signed a contract with the

in May 2004, she made her debut there at short notice at a Saturday matinee on April 1, 2006, singing the title role in ''Fidelio'' as a substitute for

Karita Mattila Karita Marjatta Mattila (born 5 September 1960) is a Finnish operatic soprano. Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastill ...

. The performance was broadcast in the live

Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The Metropolitan Opera In ...

series,

Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...

"Pressure Abounds as Determined Soprano Makes Debut"
''The New York Times'', April 2, 2006, revised April 9, 2006. and she appeared on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' show the following morning.Lennart Pehrson
"Sopranen från ingenstans"
''Dagens Nyheter'', April 2, 2006 She was also understudy for Elsa in

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in Germany, German Arthurian literature. The son of Percival, Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which fi ...

'' that season and was engaged to sing in the ''

Ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

'' that season, in

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

's ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...

'' the following season, and then in spring 2007 as joint lead in ''Turandot'' and again in ''Fidelio''. In the event she first sang ''Turandot'' there a few weeks in advance of her first scheduled appearance, stepping in for Andrea Gruber.

Bernard Holland Bernard Holland (born 1933) is an American music critic. He served on the staff of '' The New York Times'' from 1981 until 2008 and held the post of chief music critic from 1995, contributing 4,575 articles to the newspaper. He then became the Nat ...

"A Substitute No More, a Soprano Gets Her Own Spotlight"
''The New York Times'', April 24, 2007. In Europe, Sunnegårdh sang ''Turandot'' at the

Deutsche Oper The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the De ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

in January–March 2012, and has performed several times in the title roles in Puccini's ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...

'', including as a replacement at the Royal Swedish Opera, and

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

' ''

Salome Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...

'', as

Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy '' Macbeth'' (). As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth (a Scottish nobleman), Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes quee ...

, including at

Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...

,George Hall
"Macbeth: Glyndebourne, Sussex"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', July 15, 2010. and at the Malmö Opera in the title role in Janáček's ''

Jenůfa ''Její pastorkyňa'' (''Her Stepdaughter''; commonly known as ''Jenůfa'' ) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play ''Její pastorkyňa'' by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed ...

''. She made her singing debut in her hometown of Stockholm as Turandot at the Royal Swedish Opera in autumn 2013. She has also continued to give concert recitals, including of contemporary music such as

Carl Unander-Scharin Carl Unander-Scharin (born 1964) is a Swedish opera singer, composer and professor, Early years He was born in Stockholm in 1964 and studied at the Royal College of Music and at the University College of Opera, Stockholm where he acquired a M ...

's ''The world as I see it'', to texts by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, with the percussion ensemble Kroumata. In summer 2006 Sunnegårdh was a host on the P1 '' Sommar'' program. In the fall of 2013 Sunnegårdh

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

her debut solo album with the

Malmö Symphony Orchestra The Malmö Symphony Orchestra ( sv, Malmö Symfoniorkester) is a Swedish orchestra, based in Malmö. Since 2015, it has been resident at the Malmö Live Concert Hall. The orchestra has a complement of 94 musicians. History The orchestra was fo ...

directed by Will Humburg.

Critical assessments

Sunnegårdh has a powerful voice that she has described as "like a wild horse"; coaching from her mother was important in enabling her to gain control of it. Her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera was greeted warmly by the audience and most of the press, although writing for ''

'',

found her hesitant, especially in Act One. The following year,

wrote of her first scheduled appearance in ''Turandot'' that she "should be pleased with herself" and that " e is the rare Turandot who both sings like an object of hopeless desire and looks like one".

Personal life

Since 2011 Sunnegårdh has lived in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, also the home of her voice teacher Glenys Linos, a retired Greek mezzo-soprano."Brunch for Erika Sunnegardh"
''

Nordstjernan Nordstjernan () is a Swedish investment company. Nordstjernan is a fourth-generation family company controlled by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation. The origin is the shipping company Nordstjernan, which was founded in 1890. Histo ...

'', July 18, 2011 In 1999 she founded ''In time with Music'', a community outreach program benefiting school children in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York."Erika Sunnegårdh"
, Oper Frankfurt artist portrait season 2013/2014, retrieved December 22, 2013.

Discography

*Mahler, ''Symphony 8'', conducted by

Riccardo Chailly Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, since 2016, and music director of La Scala, since 2017. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions ...

. DVD. 2011, Accentus Music. *''Who might sing in all the muted woods?'' Erika Sunnegårdh sings songs created by

Joel Mandelbaum Mayer Joel Mandelbaum (born October 12, 1932) is an American music composer and teacher, best known for his use of microtonal tuning (notably just intonation and 19 equal temperament and the 31 equal temperament). He wrote the first Ph.D. dissertat ...

. 2002. Capstone. *Title role in Leoš Janáček's '' Jenufa''. Malmö Opera. Dir. Marko Ivanovic. DVD. Arthaus 101665. *Helmwige in Richard Wagner's ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...

''. Festival d'

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

. Grand Théâtre de Provence. conducted by

Simon Rattle Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principal ...

. 2007. DVD. BelAirClassiques BAC034. *Excerpts from ''

'', ''Tannhäuser'', ''

Der fliegende Holländer ' (''The Flying Dutchman''), WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. The central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden in 1843. Wagner claim ...

'' and ''

''; Strauss’s ''

Four Last Songs The ''Four Last Songs'' (german: Vier letzte Lieder, link=no), Op. posth., for soprano and orchestra are – with the exception of the song "Malven" (Mallows), composed later the same year – the final completed works of Richard Strauss. They ...

'', with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra conducted by Will Humburg.

References

External links

*
Erika Sunnegårdh

Operabase Operabase is an online database of opera performances, opera houses and companies, and performers themselves as well as their agents. Found at operabase.com, it was created in 1996 by English software engineer and opera lover Mike Gibb.Edward Sc ...

Sources

*Ulrika Junker Miranda (ed.). ''Bonniers uppslagsbok''. Stockholm: Bonniers, 2007. . p. 965. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunnegardh, Erika Living people 1966 births Singers from Stockholm Swedish operatic sopranos Swedish expatriates in the United States Manhattan School of Music alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni Swedish expatriates in Austria Singers from New York City 20th-century American women opera singers 21st-century American women opera singers 20th-century Swedish women opera singers