Anna Steiger

Anna Steiger (born 13 February 1960)^[1] is a British opera singer. She is the daughter of Claire Bloom, a British film and stage actress, and Rod Steiger, an American Academy Award-winning actor best known for his intense performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, On the Waterfront and Doctor Zhivago.

Career

After training at the Guildhall School of Music, London, with Noelle Barker and later with Vera Rozsa, her professional debut was as Dorabella in Così fan tutte in 1984. In 1986 she sang the title role in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne, and she has since returned to sing in many productions there in roles such as Concepcion in L’heure espagnole. Since 1988, she has also sung at other opera houses in the UK, including, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, roles in Parsifal, Jenůfa and The Knot Garden, and at the English National Opera in The Makropulos Affair.

Abroad, she has sung roles as: Despina in Così fan tutte in Amsterdam, Stuttgart and Zurich, Zerlina in Don Giovanni in Seattle, Stuttgart and Nancy, Governess in The Turn of the Screw at La Fenice, Venice, Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Los Angeles, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos in St Louis, Concepcion at the New York City Opera and in Geneva, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera in Frankfurt and Lausanne, and Damigella in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Salzburg Festival.

In 1994/1995 she decided to follow her natural vocal leaning towards the mezzo-soprano repertoire with some success, singing:

• Maddalena in Rigoletto at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
• Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Stuttgart
• Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro at Monte Carlo, Amsterdam and Teatro Real in Madrid
• Giunone in Agrippina in Palermo
• Tisbe in La Cenerentola at the Opéra Bastille, Marseilles and Geneva
• Pierrot Lunaire for the Opéra National de Montpellier
• Baronne in Il cappello di paglia di Firenze by Nino Rota in Toulouse
• Ragonde in Le comte Ory in Toulouse
• Auntie in Peter Grimes in Nancy and Toulouse
• Dorothee in Massenet’s Cendrillon in Geneva
• Marquise in La fille du régiment in St Gallen
• Kunstgewerblerin in Lulu at Bastille
• Flora in La traviata in Amsterdam
• Meg Page in Falstaff in Amsterdam
• Melanto in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York with De Nederlandse Opera
• La Libellule, La Tasse Chinoise and La Mere in L'enfant et les sortilèges at la Fenice, Venice.

She has sung many times with Nicolaus Harnoncourt and recorded with him the role of Despina for Teldec with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. She has also performed with important conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Bruno Campanella, Alberto Zedda, Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano, and Michael Tilson Thomas. She made a videodisc of Edgar Varèse’s Offrandes with Pierre Boulez and the IRCAM of Paris.

Anna Steiger performs regularly in opera, concert, and recital throughout Europe and the United States. Her most recent role on stage (in November, 2007) was that of Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Netherlands Opera, Amsterdam. She is about to perform Pierrot Lunaire in Avignon and in Metz, a recital in Marrakesh, and will sing in Traviata for Opera de Lyon and for Opera de Montpellier, and concerts in the Australian Chamber Music Festival 2010.

Discography

• Naxos Music DVD- Bellini: Norma, 2005
• Teldec - Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte
• Varese: Offrandes with Pierre Boulez
• Messien: Les Malheurs d'Orphee
• Ravel DVD: L'Heure Espagnole recently released on DVD with Simon Rattle at Glyndebourne

References

External links

• Naxos Music - Bellini: Norma