Happy Birthday: Karita Mattila

"Cantilena" Bachianas Brasileiras,
No. 5 (Villa-Lobos)

"Karita Marjatta Mattila was born September 5, 1960 in Somero, Finland. Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna State Opera, Toronto Roy Thomson Hall and Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg and with top orchestras. During her career, Mattila has sold over 150,000 certified records, which places her among the top 50 best-selling female soloists in Finland. In 1983, Mattila won the first Cardiff Singer of the World competition. The same year she graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she studied singing with Liisa Linko-Malmio. She then continued her studies with Vera Rozsa in London. In 1985, she made her Covent Garden debut with the Royal Opera as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. In 1988, she was seen as Emma in the first ever televised production of

"Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém"
Rusalka (Dvořák)

Schubert's Fierrabras at the Vienna State Opera. On March 22, 1990, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni. In 1994, she made her Spanish debut as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in Madrid. In 1996 followed important Paris debuts in Wagner's Lohengrin, Verdi's Don Carlos for which she received the François Reichenbach Prize Orphée du Lyrique and in Richard Strauss' Arabella in 2002. In 1997, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for her performance of Elisabeth in Don Carlos at the Royal Opera House and awarded the Evening Standard Ballet, Opera and Classical Music Award for 'Outstanding Performance of the Year' in this production. Mattila has won Grammy Awards for 'Best Opera Recording' for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1998 and for Jenůfa in 2004. In

"In Quali Eccesi, O numi!...
Mi tradi quell'alma ingrata"
Don Giovanni (Mozart)

2001 The New York Times chose Karita Mattila as the best singer of the year for her performance in Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera, and in the same year she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award “Outstanding Achievement in Opera” for both Jenůfa and Lisa in The Queen of Spades at the Royal Opera House, London. Dedicatee of Kaija Saariaho's song cycle Quatre Instants, which she created in April 2003 at the Châtelet Theatre and Barbican Centre. Paris saw her first Salome in 2003 and she was honored with Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government as a recognition of her contribution to the arts. In 2004, Mattila sang her first New York Salome at the Metropolitan Opera, which together with the subsequent Káťa Kabanová inspired the New York press to write:

"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Styne-Robin)

"Memory" Cats (Lloyd Webber)

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina"
Evita (Lloyd Webber)

'When the history of the Metropolitan Opera around the time of the millennium is written, Karita Mattila will deserve her own chapter.' In 2005, she was named Musician of the Year 2005 by Musical America, which describes her 'the most electrifying singing actress of our day, the kind of performer who renews an aging art form and drives the public into frenzies.' BBC Music Magazine named Mattila as one of the top 20 sopranos of the recorded era in 2007. Worldwide audiences saw her Manon Lescaut live in movie theatres in 2008. On September 23, 2008, she reprised Salome at the Metropolitan Opera, again broadcast worldwide in High Definition on October 11, 2008. She opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season with Tosca, which was seen live in HD worldwide on October 10, 2009. In 2010 at Opéra National de Lyon, Mattila created the role of Émilie du Châtelet in Kaija Saariaho's monodrama Émilie, which was dedicated to her." [Source]

Watch a video from 1986 of Karita Mattila singing "Ständchen," "Wiegenlied" and "Muttertändelei" of Richard Strauss by clicking here.

ROLES: Emilia Marty, Věc Makropulos
Émilie du Châtelet, Émilie
Tosca, Tosca
Manon, Manon Lescaut
Salome, Salome
Arabella, Arabella
Leonore, Fidelio
Amelia, Un ballo in maschera
Elisabeth, Don Carlos
Amelia, Simon Boccanegra
Desdemona, Otello
Elsa, Lohengrin
Eva, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Chrysothemis, Elektra
Jenůfa, Jenůfa
Káťa Kabanová, Káťa Kabanová
Lisa, The Queen of Spades
Tatyana, Eugene Onegin
Donna Anna, Don Giovanni
Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni
Contessa, Le nozze di Figaro
Fiordiligi, Così fan tutte
Pamina, Die Zauberflöte
Ilia, Idomeneo
Agathe, Der Freischütz
Emma, Fierrabras
Hanna Glawari, Die lustige Witwe
Rosalinde, Die Fledermaus
Musetta, La Bohème