Kerstin Avemo
Sopran
The Swedish soprano Kerstin Avemo has this autumn sung the solo part in Gerard Barry’s The Stronger with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Thomas Adès. Kerstin has also performed Schwanengesang D744 at the Enniskillen International Beckett Festival and now in November at the Stanislavsky Festival at the Yauza Palace Concert Hall in Moscow. In April next year the performance visits the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia, Italy. Kerstin will in March visit the Kaufman Concert Hall in New York to sing Hosokawa’s Futari Shizuka (The Maiden from the Sea), a piece she performed at the world premiere in 2017 with the Ensemble intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris and Kölner Philharmonie. Kerstin Avemo will this season also sing her first Mimì in La Bohème at the Göteborg Opera.
Last season began at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm with the role of Leilah/Lilith in the world premiere of Tristessa by Johan S. Bohlin. Kerstin also appeared as Juliette in Trois fragments de Juliette by Martinů and The woman in La voix humaine by Poulenc at the Göteborg Opera. In June, Kerstin was a guest at the Grand Théâtre de Genève where she appeared in the role of Oscar in Un ballo in maschera.
Kerstin Avemo has previously performed the role of Leticia Maynar in The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Adès and in 2017 she created an acclaimed portrait of Violetta in La Traviata at the Göteborg Opera. Other recently performed roles are Mélisande in Pelléas and Mélisande and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte in Stockholm. She has sung Gilda in Rigoletto at Staatstheater Darmstadt and she sung the Maid in Powder her Face at La Monnaie in Brussels as well as in Warsaw at the Polish National Opera. In the summer of 2015 Kerstin Avemo was seen as Olympia/Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Bregenz, directed by Stefan Herheim. Kerstin has appeared as Despina in Così fan tutte directed by Michael Haneke at Teatro Real in Madrid, La Monnaie and at Wiener Festwochen. Kerstin has sung Schwanengesang D744, staged by renowned director Romeo Castellucci, in Avignon, La Monnaie, in Paris, Luxembourg and Milano. Kerstin has sung Atalanta/Serse at Artipelag in Stockholm (Jean Christophe Spinosi), a production that visited the Opèra Royal de Versaille.
Kerstin Avemo has previously appeared in the title roles of Lulu, Lucia di Lammermoor and Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice at the Göteborg Opera. She created the roles of Wendla Bergmann in Benoît Mernier’s Frühlings Erwachen (La Monnaie), Kristin in Boesmans’ Julie (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, La Monnaie) and has incarnated roles like Blondchen/Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Servilia/La Clemenza di Tito, Oscar /Un ballo in maschera, Musica and Euridice/Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Ofelia/Hamlet, Gretel/Hänsel und Gretel, Juliette/Roméo et Juliette, Adele/Die Fledermaus, Gilda/Rigoletto, Violetta/La traviata, Zerlina/Don Giovanni on stages like Oper Frankfurt, Opernhaus Zürich, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Bolshoi in Moscow, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, DNT Weimar, the Royal Swedish Opera and The Royal Danish Opera. She has sung Iris/Semele under the baton of William Christie at Theater an der Wien, Hanako in Hosokawa’s Hanjo with the Ruhrtriennale, Sophie/Der Rosenkavalier at Grand Théâtre de Genève and Giulietta/I Capuleti e i Montecchi in concerts with the Göteborg Opera. She has worked with directors such as Luc Bondy, David Mc Vicar, Christoph Loy and Kasper Holten under the musical direction of Daniele Gatti, Kazuchi Ono, René Jacobs, Emanuelle Haïm, Esa-Pekka Salonen and others.
In concert Kerstin Avemo's repertoire includes Britten’s Les Illuminations, Bach’s Passions, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, Handel’s La Ressurrezione and Messiah, Mahler’s 2nd and 8th Symphonies and Mozart’s Requiem and C Minor Mass. On CD, Kerstin Avemo can be heard as Kristin in Boesmans Julie (Cypres), as Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Naxos) and in René Jacobs’ interpretation of Handel’s Messiah (Harmonia Mundi). She can also be experienced on DVD in Christoph Loy’s praised production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Oper Frankfurt).
Kerstin studied at the University College of Opera in Stockholm. In 2016 Kerstin Avemo received the medal Litteris et Artibus from HM King Carl XVI Gustaf, for her outstanding accomplishments as an opera singer.
The exterminating angel - Kerstin Avemo briljerar i exceptionell opera
"Adès har alltid extrema sopranroller i sina operor. Som sångerskan Leticia rör sig svenska Kerstin Avemo fullständigt oberört i trestrukna oktaven, där hon briljerar med höjdtoner som kanske aldrig tidigare framförts på en operascen. Och hon använder sin röstakrobatik till ett genomfört porträtt av en vilsen diva." (Bo Löfvendahl SvD 28 mars 2018)
"Svart blir självlysande. Kerstin Avemo får liv och död att byta plats" (Martin Nyström Dagens Nyheter, 7 maj 2017)
”Kerstin Avemo briljant i rollen som Violetta"
"Kerstin Avemo gör en briljant gestaltning av rollen som Violetta i Göteborgsoperans uppsättning av La Traviata, en föreställning som nu efter tio år är tillbaka på repertoaren. Magnus Haglund imponeras av konsekvensen och den geometriska precisionen i regissören David Radok och scenografen Lars-Åke Thessmans version av Verdis klassiska opera." (Magnus Haglund Göteborgs-Posten, 7 maj 2017)
... l'une des plus incroyables actrices chantantes qui soient / en av de mest fenomenala sjungande aktriser som finnes... (Renaud Machart i Le Monde, 25 juni 2013)
Uppdaterad januari 2019