Nancy Gustafson

Soprano Nancy Gustafson's engagements in America have included the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In Europe she has performed in Vienna and Munich, at La Scala, Milan, and London’s Covent Garden, and appeared in Hamburg, Geneva, Rome, Turin, and Berlin, and at the Bastille Opera in Paris.

Gustafson is especially well known for her highly rated appearances in the operas of Janáèék, and is an acclaimed exponent of the title role of Katya Kabanova. Since her debut in the part at Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Andrew Davis, she has also sung the role in Vienna and at the Bastille. She sang a much acclaimed Jenùfa at Covent Garden as well as at the Paris Châtelet under the baton of Simon Rattle, and she has returned to Glyndebourne to sing the role of Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen Of Spades.

Gustafson has worked with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Sir Colin Davis, Christian Thielemann, Christoph von Dohnányi, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, and Marcello Viotti. Recordings include Das Rheingold (Decca, 1996), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (1995) and La bohème (2001) (both for Teldec), The Czarevitch and The Land of Smiles (both for Telarc, 1996), and a live recording of Massenet’s Hérodiade (RCA Red Seal, 1995).

Gustafson’s repertoire also includes the roles of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and the title roles in Ariadne and Salomé. She performed in the world premieres of Deborah Drattell’s Nicholas and Alexandra opposite Plácido Domingo in Los Angeles, and of Lorin Maazel’s 1984 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She also performed in a new production of Fidelio in Bonn (directed by Günter Krämer), I Pagliacci at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a new production of Die Fledermaus in Tokyo, and Arabella and Elektra in Dresden. In the U.S., Gustafson has performed in Erwartung in Chicago and Lohengrin with the Dallas Opera.

Future projects include her return to La Scala to sing 1984, and a new production of Arabella at the Hamburg State Opera as well as numerous concerts, including performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic.