Jennifer Larmore

Wikipedia:

Jennifer Larmore (born June 21, 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer, noted for coloratura and bel canto.

Career

Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano, well known for her versatility, natural beauty and stage craft. This artist has a wide ranging repertoire,  excelling in the coloratura roles of the Baroque and bel canto, in addition to music from the  Romantic and Contemporary periods.

She began her career at Opera de Nice in 1986 with Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and went on to sing  at virtually every major opera house in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera, Berlin Deutsche Oper, and London Covent Garden. 

Jennifer Larmore has recorded widely for the Teldec, RCA, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Arabesque, Opera Rara, Bayer, Naive, Chandos, VAI and Cedille labels in over one hundred CDs to date.

With her frequent collaborator Antoine Palloc, she has made many International recital tours, including appearances in Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Vietnam, Vienna, London, San Juan, Prague, Melbourne, Brussels, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, São Paulo, Athens and Copenhagen, as well as all the major American venues.   Symphonic repertoire plays a large role in this mezzo’s career with the works of Mahler, Schoenberg, Mozart, de Falla, Debussy, Berlioz and Barber featuring prominently. Miss Larmore has enjoyed great collaborations with world orchestras under the direction of Muti, Lopez-Cobos, Bernstein, Runnicles, Sinopoli, Masur, von Dochnanyi, Jacobs, Mackarras, Spinosi, Guidarini, Kalmar, Rudel, Barenboim, Queler, Bonynge, Maazel, Osawa and Hengelbrock.   Jennifer Larmore's upcoming schedule takes her to the Théatre des Champs-Élysées, London’s Barbican Hall, Venice, Budapest and Paris Opera Bastille as “Alcina” in Vivaldi’s ORLANDO FURIOSO with Jean-Chrsitophe Spinosi; to Paris’ Opera Bastille for the “Countess Geschwitz” in Berg's Lulu which she debuted in June 2009  to great success at Covent Garden in the Christof Loy production with Tony Pappano;  to Brussels La Monnaie as Dulcinée in Massenet's Don Quichotte with Marc Minkowski;  to Berlin Deutsche Oper for Kostelnichka in Janáček's Jenufa with Donald Runnicles; to Washington Concert Opera for “Charlotte” in WERTHER; to Geneva for the role of “Lady Macbeth” in a new Christof Loy production of Verdi’s opera MACBETH.    Miss Larmore, in collaboration with the double bass player Davide Vittone has created a new ensemble called Jennifer Larmore and OpusFive. The three programs they offer are entertaining and varied with Songs and Arias, Cabaret/Operetta and Movies and Broadway which feature string quintet and voice. They give concerts all over Europe, including in Seville, Pamploma, Valencia, Las Palmas, Venice, Amiens and Aix en Provence and Paris.   In addition to her many activities, travels, performances and causes, author Jennifer Larmore is working on books that will bring a wider public to the love of opera!

Statistics:

Larmore attended Westminster Choir College in New Jersey and trained with John Bullock and Regina Resnik. She made her professional debut in 1986, at Opéra de Nice in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. In 1988, she sang Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville (Jérôme Savary production in Strasbourg) She made her Carnegie Hall debut as Romeo (Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi) in 1994 and her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1995. She appeared as Gertrude in the Met's Hamlet in 2010.

Larmore has won the Richard Tucker Award and a Grammophon Best Baroque Opera award for singing Giulio Cesare on Harmonia Mundi. She has had eight Grammy Award nominations and sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Atlanta. Larmore also hosted a satellite radio show for two years called Backstage With Jennifer Larmore. She received knighthood (Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) from the French Government in 2002.

Recordings

In addition to Il barbiere di Siviglia, Larmore has recorded leading roles in Carmen, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, La Cenerentola, L'italiana in Algeri, Bianca e Falliero, Giulio Cesare, La Sofonisba, and I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

She has also appeared in supporting roles in Orphée et Eurydice, Maria Stuarda, Francesca di Foix, Elvida, Adelaide di Borgogna, and Alessandro nelle Indie.