Biography
Since winning Plácido Domingo’s Operalia and Queen Sonja competitions in 2015, Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen has taken the classical music world by storm, with resounding debuts in venues such as Bayreuth, Aix-en-Provence and Glyndebourne Festivals, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms in London, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Wiener Staatsoper, and Zurich Opera House. Davidsen continues her meteoric rise in the 2019/20 season with several debuts and appearances: debut with Metropolitan Opera as Lisa (Queen of Spades); a role debut as Leonore (Fidelio) with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Opéra de Montreal and at Royal Opera House with Sir Antonio Pappano; and her return to Bayreuth in summer 2020 to star as Sieglinde (Die Walküre), as well as reprising the role of Elisabeth (Tannhäuser). Last season Davidsen took on her first major Wagner role, Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) which she performed at Opernhaus Zürich, Bayerische Staatsoper and in a triumphant debut at the Bayreuth Festival where she was hailed by the international press as a “voice once in a century”. Further appearances included a role debut as Lisa (Queen of Spades) at Oper Stuttgart; the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos at Aix-en-Provence Festival, Wiener Staatsoper and Glyndebourne Festival; Agathe (Der Freischütz) at Opernhaus Zürich; Cherubini’s Medea at Wexford Festival; Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) in Oslo; and Isabella (Das Liebesverbot) at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Lise Davidsen studied singing at the Grieg Academy of Music in Bergen and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. She made her Royal Danish Opera debut in the 2012/13 season as Dog and Owl (The Cunning Little Vixen).
Photo Ray Burmiston