Sophie Karthäuser

Renowned worldwide as one of the finest interpreters of Mozart’s works, being called a born “Mozartian”, Sophie Karthäuser has earned such praise by singing her first ever Pamina under the baton of René Jacobs at La Monnaie and her debut as Susanna led by William Christie with Opéra de Lyon. She has appeared in several other Mozart roles, such as Tamiri (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Sandrina (Theater an der Wien), Serpetta (Berlin Konzerthaus), Despina and Zerlina (Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie) and Ilia (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg Mozartwoche, Bremen, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Theater an der Wien).

Notable stage productions include the title role in La Calisto at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées under Christophe Rousset as well as at La Monnaie under René Jacobs, a large scale Rameau project in Aix-en-Provence with William Christie, Sandrina in Mozart´s La finta giardinera at the Theater an der Wien, Charpentier’s Medée with Emmanuelle Haïm at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Polissena in Händel’s Radamisto at Theater an der Wien. In January and February 2015, she returned to La Monnaie with Händel’s Tamerlano with a revival in Amsterdam. March 2016 brought her back to La Monnaie as Héro in Béatrice et Bénédicte (Berlioz), a role in which she appeared also at the 2016 edition of the Glyndebourne Festival (Laurent Pelly’s production). Further highlights have been a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Theater an der Wien and the title role in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Wielki Theatre in Warsaw. In the fall of 2021, she was heard as Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Semperoper in Dresden

 

Ever since she won the audience price at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, Sophie Karthäuser counts among the most coveted recitalists with appearances in Antwerp, Lille, Nantes, Paris, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Frankfurt, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, at the Philharmonic Halls in Berlin and Cologne as well as at New York’s Carnegie Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall, Frankfurt and Paris halls, accompanied by pianists Graham Johnson, Eugene Asti, Cédric Tiberghien and David Lively. In the past two seasons she charmed her audiences in recitals in Brussels, London, Oxford, Strasbourg, Zürich, Stuttgart, Paris, Cologne and at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

 

Sophie Karthäuser is an equally sought-after concert soloist and is frequently being invited by prestigious ensembles and orchestras such as Staatskapelle Dresden, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Freiburger Barockorchester and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, among others. Her presence on the podium on countless occasions alongside conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Ingo Metzmacher, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Louis Langrée, Pablo Heras-Casado, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ono, Jérémie Rohrer, Marc Minkowski and Christophe Rousset give testimony to her outstanding artistry.

 

Recent highlights have been Pamina in Mozart´s Die Zauberflöte at La Monnaie in Brussels under the baton of Antonello Manacorda and the direction of Romeo Castellucci, Händel’s Delirio amoroso on tour through Asia with AKAMUS, French opera arias with the Le Concert de la Loge in Paris, Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido in Palermo, Bach’s Christmas-Oratorio in Göteborg and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Helsinki. In the fall of 2021, she took part in a project called “Pastoral for the Planet” together with the Insula Orchestra and Laurence Equilbey, where Sophie Karthäuser could be heard with rarely performed works by Beethoven and Weber, brought on stage by the Catalan theatre group La Fura dels Baus.

 

Sophie Karthäuser´s recordings include a solo album of Grétry arias (awarded with Diapason découverte), Haydn’s Il Ritorno di Tobia with Andreas Spering (Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik), Mozart’s complete songs (Cypres), Mozart arias with Kazushi Ono at La Monnaie (Cypres), Händel’s Faramondo (Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros), Mozart’s La finta giardinera with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi), Haydn´s Creation with William Christie, Pergolesi’s Septem verba with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi) as well as a solo album of French songs Green inspired by Verlaine with Cédric Tiberghien (Cypres). Her recording of Poulenc songs together with pianist Eugene Asti (Harmonia Mundi) as well as Händel’s Orlando (Archiv) were released in 2014. Her CD of Lalande´s Leçons de ténèbres (Hamonia Mundi, 2015) with the Ensemble Correspondances and Sébastien Daucé, highly acclaimed by the press, appeared in March 2015 and was awarded the Diapason d´Or 2015. Her CD Kennst du das Land (Harmonia Mundi, 2016), also with pianist Eugene Asti and released in April 2016 by Harmonia Mundi, contains songs of Hugo Wolf and has been highly acclaimed by international critics. In May 2018 Bach’s Dialogue Cantatas with Michael Volle and AKAMUS has been released by Harmonia Mundi, followed by Harmonie du soir with mélodies françaises by Debussy. Her latest album Le Bal des Animaux, also with Eugene Asti, has been released by Harmonia Mundi in November 2018.

 

Born in Belgium, Sophie Karthäuser completed her studies with Noelle Barker at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.