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All Music Guide:
Barbara Bonney is one of her generation's most versatile singers, having achieved equal success with lied, oratorio, modern vocal music, and opera, and on top of all that having become a highly proficient cellist. Her smallish but well-projected voice is especially suited to Mozart, the lighter Richard Strauss operas, and all but the heaviest lieder, and she has been careful in her choice of repertoire; even in her fortiess, she can still call forth a fresh, girlish timbre when it is needed.
Her family was not a musical one, and it was only by chance that her parents discovered she had perfect pitch and a sense of music--when she was three, they noticed that she could perfectly imitate musical noises, such as the melody that one of the household clocks chimed. When she was older, she started piano, but found that she preferred the more songful tones of the cello. It was an interest in German that led to her singing career--as a college student at the University of New Hampshire she decided to spend a year in Germany, studying at the University of Salzburg. She worked a wide variety of jobs to support herself, including cooking, selling produce at a vegetable stand, and copying music, and one day a friend suggested that she audition for the famed Mozarteum orchestra there. She hadn't brought her cello overseas with her, since the costs of shipping were prohibitive, so instead she prepared a song for her audition, and was offered a position as a lieder student. Spurred on by this success, she auditioned for the Darmstadt Opera (knowing only two arias out of the entire operatic repertoire), and was given the ingenue role of Anna in Nicolai's Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor). During her years with the company, she learned over forty operatic roles.
In 1984, she made her Vienna State Opera debut as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, a role which was to become one of her most famous. Another characteristic role, that of Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflõte, she first undertook in her 1985 La Scala debut. In 1987, she sang Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at Monte Carlo, which brought her to the attention of conductor Carlos Kleiber. Lucia Popp, too, greatly admired her Sophie, and when Popp relinquished the role, moving on to the Marschallin, she declared that she was passing it on to Bonney, the Sophie of the next generation. Her Met debut was in 1988, as Naiad in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. During the 1990s, increasingly able to pick and choose what roles and repertoire she would sing, she began to reduce her operatic roles to a few of her special favorites, such as Pamina, Susanna (in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro), and Ilia (in his Idomeneo), and adding a few new roles, such as Zdenka in Strauss's Arabella and Hanna Glawari (in Lehár's Die lustige Witwe [The Merry Widow]). Like Popp, she chose to drop the role of Sophie, leaving it for younger singers. This would allow her to spend more time singing lieder performances, and also to teach.
She was briefly married to baritone Hakan Hagegard. Among her recordings, her Mozart arias (London 460 571) and Schubert lieder (Teldec 90873) capture her voice and singing quite well.
Wikipedia:
Barbara Bonney (born April 14, 1956) is an American soprano.
Early life
Bonney was born in Montclair, New Jersey. As a child she studied piano and cello. When Bonney was 13 her family moved to Maine, where she became part of the Portland Youth Orchestra as a cellist. She spent two years at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) studying German and music including voice with Patricia Stedry, and spent her junior year at the University of Salzburg, where she switched from cello to voice. While there, she studied at the Mozarteum. Years later she received an honorary doctorate from UNH.
Career
In 1979, Bonney joined the Darmstadt Opera, where she made her debut as Anna in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor). In the subsequent five years she made appearances throughout Germany and Europe, notably at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milan. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1987 in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos in the role of Nyade and her Vienna Staatsoper debut the same year as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. Since then, she has appeared at the major opera houses of the world and at the Salzburg Festival, where she was Servilia in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito.
Along with her wide-ranging repertoire in opera as a lyric soprano, she is a distinguished recitalist in command of many languages. She appears on more than 90 recordings, including 15 solo recitals. For two years, starting in 1999, Bonney did not perform in opera, to focus on lieder recitals. However, she noted that solo recitals lacked the camaraderie of performing in an opera production with many other people. In 2002, she contributed "The Willow Song" to the compilation album, When Love Speaks (EMI Classics), which features famous actors and musicians interpreting Shakespeare's sonnets and play excerpts.
On August 1, 2006, IMG Artists announced that all forthcoming appearances by Bonney were cancelled and that they would no longer be representing her. At the time, the IMG Artists website only stated the reason as "due to personal circumstances", but Bonney has stated in a July 2007 article that those circumstances included her "difficult" divorce from Maurice Whitaker. On March 16, 2007, the Rheingau Musik Festival announced that Bonney would resume her career on August 16, 2007 by standing in for the indisposed Thomas Hampson. Before that scheduled concert, on July 22, 2007, Bonney stepped in as one of several vocal soloists to replace Renée Fleming, when Fleming canceled her appearance at a Verbier Festival concert.
In 2006, Bonney recorded the "singspiel/dramatic oratorio" Welcome to the Voice, composed by Steve Nieve, with Sting, Amanda Roocroft, Robert Wyatt, Nathalie Manfrino, Sara Fulgoni, Elvis Costello and Brodsky Quartet. This is part of her resumption of concert and musical activities, which includes new management representation by Michael Storrs Music Limited.
Bonney is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and is a Visiting Professor at London's Royal Academy of Music. She also has taken a professorship at the Mozarteum, Salzburg. She is the founder of The Bonney Foundation, whose mission is "to give young singers the needed support for a good career start. The Bonney Foundation gives financial aid to young singers, and finances seminars and master classes held by Miss Bonney and international performing artists."
Selected Recordings
Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt (complete incidental music to Ibsen's play), and Sigurd Jorsalfar, (complete suite) Barbara Bonney (soprano), and Neeme Jarvi, conductor, with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, DGG (2-CD set)