Nina Stemme

Career Trajectory

Stemme emerged from Stockholm's conservatory tradition to become the defining Wagnerian soprano of her era, her debut as Cherubino in 1989 giving way to a career that would establish her as the supreme interpreter of Isolde, Brünnhilde, and Elektra on the world's greatest stages. Her 2005 *Tristan und Isolde* recording with Plácido Domingo and her landmark *Ring* cycles at La Scala and Vienna State Opera under Barenboim cemented her status as an artist of intellectual rigor and psychological depth. Honored with the Birgit Nilsson Prize in 2018 and named "world's leading female opera singer" by *Opernwelt* in 2005 and 2012, Stemme has redefined dramatic soprano singing for the twenty-first century.