The opportunity to hear one of the world's great artists doing the work she does better than anyone else—[is] the reason you go to concerts.

—The New Yorker

Musetta Aria from La BohÉme by Karita Mattila & Iiro Rantala

Program

FRANCIS POULENC: Banalités (Apollinaire) (1940)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Cinq Poèmes de Baudelaire (1887–90)

AULIS SALINEN: Neljä laulua unesta (Four Dream Songs) (Haavikko) (1972)

JOSEPH MARX: Nocturne (Hartleben); Waldseligkeit (Dehmel); Selige Nacht (Hartleben); Valse de Chopin (Giraud); Hat dich die Liebe berührt (Heyse)

Encore:
LOEWE: I Could Have Danced All Night
FINNISH FOLK SONG (arr. Ralf Gothóni): Minun kultani kaunis on

About This Performance

Glamorous and intense, this Finnish powerhouse soprano is known to standing-room-only audiences for her thrilling, hard-edged top notes, “unabashed romantic longing” (New York Times) and gripping characterizations. She is the kind of artist that puts the grand in grand opera, as in San Francisco Opera”s The Makropoulos Case last season, “a performance of chilling exactitude and fearlessness” (San Francisco Chronicle).

This performance is made possible in part through the generous support of the
Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.

Artist Biography

Karita Mattila is one of today’s most exciting lyric dramatic sopranos. She is recognized as much for the beauty and versatility of her voice as for her extraordinary stage ability. A native of Finland, Mattila was trained at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where her teacher was Liisa Linko-Malmio, and subsequently she studied with Vera Rozsa for nearly 20 years. She sings in all the world’s major opera houses and festivals and has performed with the world’s greatest conductors including Levine, Abbado, Davis, Dohnanyi, Haitink, Pappano, Rattle, Salonen and Sawallisch. Her operatic repertoire encompasses works by Beethoven, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner and Janáček. Mattila’s innate sense of drama has led to remarkable collaborations with major stage directors including Luc Bondy in his highly acclaimed Don Carlos, which she performed in Paris, London and at the Edinburgh Festival; Lev Dodin in his productions of Elektra for the Salzburg Easter Festival and Pique Dame and Salome at the Opéra National de Paris; Peter Stein for his Simon Boccanegra in Salzburg and Don Giovanni in Chicago; and Jürgen Flimm for his Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera. She is an influential artistic force in the development of new music, regularly collaborating with eminent contemporary composers in the debut performances of significant modern works. Recent performances in this genre include the world premiere of Emilie de Chatelet by Kaija Saariaho at the Opéra National de Lyon.

Mattila has many recordings to her credit on the Phillips, EMI, Sony, DG, and Ondine labels. Her fortieth birthday concert, in front of nearly 12,000 people in Helsinki, was released on CD by Ondine. Other recordings include Strauss's Vier letzte lieder with Claudio Abbado on the DG label; arias and scenes from the operas of Puccini, Verdi, Janáček, Tchaikovsky, Wagner and R. Strauss; German Romantic Arias by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Weber with Sir Colin Davis; Grieg and Sibelius Songs with Sakari Oramo (all on Erato/Warner); complete recordings of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on Decca with the late Sir Georg Solti, which won a Grammy Award in 1998; and Jenůfa on Erato/Warner with Bernard Haitink, which won a Grammy Award in 2004; and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 with Sir Simon Rattle on EMI.

Recent highlights include the title role of Janáček's Katya Kabanova at the Lyric Opera Chicago, Lisa Pique Dame at the Metropolitan Opera, The Makropoulos Case at San Francisco Opera, and concert appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Throughout her distinguished career, Mattila has won numerous awards. Most importantly, she was named Musical America’s Musician of the Year, one of the most prestigious honors paid to classical artists in the U.S. and has been awarded one of France's highest cultural honours, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

Future engagements include Emilia Marty The Makropoulos Case at the Metropolitan Opera and at the Finnish National Opera, title role Ariadne auf Naxos for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and at the Opéra National de Paris, Leonore Fidelio for Houston Grand Opera and recitals at the Edinburgh Festival and New York's Carnegie Hall.

Martin Katz is a veteran and highly respected American collaborative pianist. He has been performing for over 30 years, accompanying such stars as Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Kiri Te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade and José Carreras. He has appeared on many of the world”s leading recital stages, and recorded for many of the major record labels. As a scholar, he has prepared editions of Baroque- and bel canto-era operas that have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera and other prominent venues. The 1998 winner of Musical America’s “Accompanist of the Year” award, Katz is currently the Artur Schnabel Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, where he teaches vocal repertory, ensemble piano, and vocal coaching, and often conducts the university's opera productions.

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