©Photo: Francisco Munoz

©Photo: Francisco Munoz

©Photo: Francisco Munoz

©Photo: Annemi Augustijns, Opera Vlaanderen

©Photo: Erik Berg

Mari Eriksmoen

Soprano

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“The recording captures the crystalline yet supple quality of her voice and her direct, communicative way with text.”
(The Guardian)

Mari Eriksmoen’s exquisite musicianship and impressive versatility have led to a blossoming career and innumerous acclaimed appearances on Europe’s premiere opera, concert, and recital stage alongside enduring collaborations with many key orchestras, conductors, and directors.

In the current season, Eriksmoen debuts as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at Den Norske Opera under Kirill Karabits, as Costanza in a new production of Vivaldi’s Griselda at The Royal Danish Theater under Lars Ulrik Mortensen, as Zabelle in George Benjamin’s Picture a Day like This at Tiroler Festspiele Erl, conducted by Corinna Niemeyer and she joins Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Aapo Häkkinen as Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo in concert in Helsinki, Amsterdam and Herne.

On the concert stage across the 2024/25 season, Mari returns to Den Norske Opera for Britten’s Les Illuminations under Edward Gardner, makes her Japanese debut with Sapporo Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.2 under Elias Grandy, joins Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España for Handel’s Messiah under Paul Agnew, sings Solveig in Grieg’s Peer Gynt with Orquesta y Coro de RTVE and Thomas Dausgaard and she tours and records Haydn’s Cäcilienmesse with Kammerorchester Basel under René Jacobs.

In previous seasons Mari Eriksmoen has excelled as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande (Opera Vlaanderen, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Teatro de la Maestranza, Sevilla), Pamina in Simon McBurney’s acclaimed staging of Die Zauberflöte (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Dutch National Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Bergen National Opera), Marzelline in Fidelio (Opéra Comique), La Fée in Cendrillon (Komische Oper Berlin), Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (Den Norske Opera), and Waldvogel in Daniel Barenboim’s epic Ring Cycles at Teatro alla Scala.

Mari Eriksmoen has recently added a number of new roles to her repertoire, including Blanche de la Force in Barrie Kosky’s production of Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites under Yi-Chen Lin for Den Norske Opera, Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Ensemble I Gemelli, Gerda in Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen at Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw under Kent Nagano, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare at Festival d’opéra baroque de Beaune and Romilda in Xerxes at Opéra de Normandie Rouen. Marking her debut at Salzburger Festspiele, Eriksmoen joined Václav Luks and Collegium 1704 as Isacco in Myslivecek’s rarity Abramo ed Isacco.

Eriksmoen’s 2010 debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at Theater an der Wien, conducted by Bertrand de Billy, marked the beginning of a regular presence on the historic Vienna stage, returning across the next decade as Olympia (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Euridice (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Agilea (Handel’s Teseo), and as Susanna, Zerlina and Fiordiligi in the Da Ponte Trilogy conducted by the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Recent concert highlights include her debut with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No.2 under Neeme Järvi, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Berliner Philharmoniker and Ivan Fischer, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with Münchner Philharmoniker and Paavo Järvi, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Philippe Herreweghe, Mahler’s Symphony No.2 with Orchestre de Paris and Klaus Mäkelä, Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Mahler’s Symphony No.4 with Tonhalle Zürich and Kent Nagano and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with Wiener Symphoniker and Omer Meir Wellber.

Mari Eriksmoen’s impressive discography includes recent releases of Britten and Canteloube with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Ed Gardner (Chandos), Handel and Mozart with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Jan Willem de Vriend (Challenge Classics), and her “poised, elegant and persuasive” (The Guardian) debut recital disc with pianist Alphonse Cémin (Alpha). She also appears on Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Daniel Harding (Naxos) and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail with both Akademie für alte Musik Berlin under René Jacobs (harmonia mundi) and Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Robin Ticciati (Opus Arte DVD).

Eriksmoen completed her studies in Oslo (Norwegian Academy of Music), Paris (Conservatoire National Supérieur) and Copenhagen (Royal Danish Academy of Opera) before being launched immediately into her career in 2010 by an invitation to debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at Theater an der Wien, conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Those performances marked the beginning of a regular presence on the historic Vienna stage, returning across the next decade as Olympia (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Euridice (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Agilea (Handel’s Teseo), and as Susanna, Zerlina and Fiordiligi in the Da Ponte Trilogy conducted by the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

A fast-growing discography includes recent releases of Britten and Canteloube with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Ed Gardner (Chandos), Handel and Mozart with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Jan Willem de Vriend (Challenge Classics), and her “poised, elegant and persuasive” (The Guardian) debut recital disc with pianist Alphonse Cémin (Alpha). She also appears on Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Daniel Harding (Naxos) and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail with both Akademie für alte Musik Berlin under René Jacobs (harmonia mundi) and Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Robin Ticciati (Opus Arte DVD).

Gallery

Mari Eriksmoen Blonde 2, copyright Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Mari Eriksmoen Pamina 1, copyright Boris Horvat, Agence France-Presse, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence

Waiting | World Premiere | Bergen International Festival 2019 © FestspilleneiBergen

'Or sai chi l'onore' from Don Giovanni © Berwaldhallen Play

Trailer Pelléas et Mélisande

Brahms: 'Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit' © Muenchener Philharmoniker

Haydn: ‘Nun beut die fleur’, Die Schöpfung

“The soprano Mari Eriksmoen …with her wonderful soprano, rich in overtones. What a beautiful, soulful voice. Soprano brilliance of the highest quality.”

Online Merker, November 2023

“Mari Eriksmoen offers at every moment the clarity of her voice, her agility, her art of pianissimo and legato … With her red wig, she occupies the stage with conviction and her youthful Romilda effortlessly attracts all hearts to her.”

Olyrix, March 2023

“Mari Eriksmoen, as Mélisande, was fragile, wondering and beguiling. Her gentle soprano took on force in the love scene, only to become a whisper as she died.”

Opera Magazine, June 2022

“After a ringing and forceful Susanna, Mari Eriksmoen attests her versatility with a Zerlina full of calm conviction in her sensitively sung ‘Vedrai carino’. And she also sings Fiordiligi, moving convincingly between registers and acknowledging her final defeat with a touching ‘fa’ di me quell che ti par’.”

Opera Magazine, Feb 2022

“With her complex, ringing soprano, Eriksmoen in particular sings a moving consolation for the bereaved, which Brahms places at the centre [of his Requiem].”

(Süddeutsche Zeitung, Apr 2022)

“This new recording [of Britten’s Les illuminations] is highly persuasive. The Norwegian soprano delivers highly animated performances…She attacks ‘Royauté’ and ‘Marine’ with insouciant swagger, while ‘Being Beauteous’ is urgently phrased”

(Gramophone, Dec 2021)

“Soprano Mari Eriksmoen embodies Marzelline with character while maintaining a youthful freshness. Her pure timbre reveals delicate high notes and a delightful vibrato, delivering an interpretation full of nuance, including in the strong opening duet with Jaquino, where her sharp diction and precise rhythm successfully translates her character’s frustrations.”

(Olyrix, Sep 2021)

“Mari Eriksmoen is a delicious Marzelline, her warm, fruity voice unfolds with grace and naturalness in a role to which she gives real depth.”

(Bachtrack, Sep 2021)

“Mari Eriksmoen is distinguished by an exquisite musicality, a radiant line of singing endowed with an even ethereal tone”

(Olyrix, July 2021)

“she is a star here…The runs in the martial aria from Mitridate are perfectly placed, as they are in Donna Anna’s ‘Non mi dir’. Eriksmoen captures the restlessness of Ilia’s first aria and she sounds suitably vengeful in Alma grande e nobil core…enjoy the top-drawer singing.”

(Gramophone, May 2021)

“Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen presents a recital of arias by Handel and Mozart…and the focus, after all, is Mari Eriksmoen’s voice, it is superb. The natural grace of the light, agile and confident soprano, the cultivated declamation and fresh liveliness, but also the often moving empathy of her singing show an artist who fully convinces with a stylistically confident musicality.”

(5*, Pizzicato.lu, February 2021)

“Mari Eriksmoen as Servilia presented a fresh, sweet sound”

(OperaMag, Feb 2020)

“With her precise and clear timbre, soprano Mari Eriksmoen firmly establishes her ability with this music. With great sensitivity and very flexible phrasing, her voice builds in “Ah no lasciarmi, no” at the mention of the departure of her lover and she finishes the aria beautifully at the top of her range. In “Ridente la calma”, she brings a more voluptuous tone, complementing the caressing bass.”

(Olyrix, December 2019)

“Mari Eriksmoen (Servilia) exudes a youthful timbre, which assures linden beauty of the only catchy tune of the evening.”

(Wienerzeitung, October 2019)

“Equally impressive is Mari Eriksmoen as Servilia. Technically perhaps the cleanest voice of the evening, excellently supported especially at the top of the range, and artistically at the highest level, Eriksmoen puts an explicit exclamation mark after her name! In her aria ‘S’altro che lacrime,’ the Norwegian soprano sings so emphatically that crying does not help, but the audience was close to tears at this gorgeous vocal performance.”

(Klassik-begeistert.de, October 2019)

“The Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen brings a pure, clean sound and playful character to Susanna.”

(Das Opernmagazin, September 2019)

“Soprano Eriksmoen is the heart and lifeblood of Waiting. Her voice is radiant; her performance, breathtaking.”

(ClassicalVoiceAmerica, May 2019)

“Mari Eriksmoen and [her Tamino] made a wonderful princely couple, both looking and sounding beautiful…Eriksmoen was just as clear, just as unforced and showed how Mozart can tug at the heartstring”

(Bachtrack, July 2018)

“Mari Eriksmoen is a Pamina who combines grace with determination, a pure voice but with strength, and a dancer’s elegance”

(Forum Opéra, July 2018)

“Mari Eriksmoen is a delicate, sensitive Pamina”

(L’Avant-Scène Opéra, July 2018)

“The most magnificent in the cast was the Mélisande of Mari Eriksmoen, a lyrical soprano who sings with perfect clarity. With her lithe silhouette and Scandinavian looks, she fully embodies the fascinating heroine, at once fragile and extremely determined”

(L’Avant-Scène Opéra, February 2018)

“The big star in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande is Mari Eriksmoen. The Norwegian soprano impresses from the opening scene right up to her deathbed”

(Volkskrant, February 2018)

“Soprano Mari Eriksmoen is a clear-voiced Mélisande and perfectly portrays the exceptional nature of this almost extra-terrestrial character”

(Bachtrack, February 2018)

“Mari Eriksmoen dominates the cast with an almost perfect Mélisande in her debut performance”

(Forum Opéra, February 2018)

“In the role of Mélisande, the Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen makes a resoundingly impressive debut at Opera Vlaanderen: her French diction was faultless, her voice like crystal, and she embodies the hypnotising fragility of this heroine to perfection.”

(Toute la culture, February 2018)

“A delicate, diaphanous beauty and Scandinavian blonde, the radiant Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen succeeds in her debut as Mélisande”

(Concertonet.com, February 2018)

“Mari Eriksmoen has the agile freshness of Hanne [Haydn’s The Seasons], a pure voice sometimes reminiscent of a Gundula Janowitz.”

(Concertonet, December 2017)

“Mari Eriksmoen’s lip-biting Zerlina left no doubt as to her being an ideal first choice in her highly-charged, kittenish reading…Vocally sailing through the part, this Zerlina whet one’s appetite for greater challenges to come.”

(The Opera Critic, December 2016)

“Zerlina is the focus of the cast. Mari Eriksmoen sings the role with her clear, flexible and wonderfully coloured soprano”

(News.at, December 2016

“The performance is led by Mari Eriskmoen as a charming Zerlina”

(Salzburger Nachtrichten, December 2016)

“Mari Eriksmoen, with her bright and agile soprano, is an ideal Zerlina”

(Die Presse, December 2016)

“Mari Eriskmoen was especially successful in creating a thoroughly strong character in Zerlina”

(Wiener Zeitung, December 2016)

“Mari Eriksmoen is a suitably fearless Blonde.”

(Opera Magazine, Hugo Shirley, September 2016)

“Radiating an abundance of melodious sound and filling the theatre is Mari Eriksmoen as La Fée, with her magically mellifluous coloratura”

(Die Welt, June 2016)

“[As La Fée], Mari Eriskmoen produces the most alluring, shimmering coloratura; pure magic.”

(Der Tagesspiegel, June 2016)

“Rising soprano Mari Eriksmoen has chosen her repertoire for this disc well…Her selection of nine songs by Hugo Wolf emphasises a sense of mischief, and the recording captures well the crystalline yet supple quality of her voice and her direct, communicative way with text. Her Strauss selection includes three of the Ophelia Songs, which she makes sound at once confiding and otherworldly…Eriksmoen is even more persuasive in her native Norwegian. Five songs by Grieg find her relishing each word – A Bird’s Song sounds especially posied and elegant.”

(Erica Jeal, The Guardian, February 2016)

“Mari Eriksmoen was a Blonde to rival that of Lucia Popp in the old Josef Krips recording, the stage presence a continual source of vitality and the beauty of tone endlessly beguiling.”

(Roger Parker, Opera Magazine, August 2015)

“Mari Eriksmoen [gave a] beautifully-sung live-wire performance as Blonde.”

(Michael Church, Independent, June 2015)

“Mari Eriksmoen has a clear, agile soprano and light vibrato with which she spun fine pianos and gave a credible depiction of the caring, boisterous and naïve girl.”

(Hedy Mühleck, Bachtrack, August 2015)

“The Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen was lively and vocally excellent as Rosina.”

(Susanna Dalmonte, Deutschland Radio, February 2015)