Swedish mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1995 and since then has been performing regularly on the world’s leading opera and concert stages. She has been engaged by the Göteborg Opera since 2012 and in 2018, she was appointed Court Singer to the Swedish Royal Court.
Her performances at the Göteborg Opera include Fricka in the Das Rheingold, Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde, Orpheus in Orpheus et Eurydike, the Woman in Schönberg’s Erwartung and Madame Sebastian in Notorious as well as Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, Clytemnestra in Electra, Octavian in the Der Rosenkavalier, Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina and Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. In 2018, her interpretation of the lead role in Bellini’s Norma won her Svenska Dagbladet’s Opera Prize.
Katarina made her debut in 1999 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera as Varvara in Katja Kabanova. This was followed by Olga in Eugene Onegin, Siebel in Faust, Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro under James Levine.
Other roles include Kostelnička in Jenůfa with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in 2024 (recorded for the LSO’s own label), Herodias in Salome and Kundry in Parsifal at Opera North, Claire in The Visit of the Old Lady at Theater an der Wien, Annio in La Clemenza di Tito at the Royal Opera House and Bayerische Staatsoper, Countess Geschwitz in Lulu at the Bayerische Staatsoper, the title role in Carmen at the Opéra Comique and in Alceste at La Monnaie, Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Orpheus in Orpheus and Eurydice at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin.
She has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony and the BBC's Scottish Symphony Orchestra. An acclaimed recitalist, Katarina has performed at the Wigmore Hall in London, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Royal events include performances at the Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street in London as well as at Her Majesty Queen Silvia's Childhood concerts and the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in 2010.
Katarina has made many recordings including songs by Sibelius and Grieg, R. Strauss and Mahler, Orchestral Songs by Szymanowski with Simon Rattle and Orchestral Songs by Mahler with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki. DVD recordings include Brangaine in Tristan and Isolde with Nina Stemme in the role of Isolde.
In 2010, Katarina Karnéus won two Grammy Awards for Mahler's Eighth Symphony accompanied by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, she was awarded the Litteris et Artibus medal by His Majesty the King of Sweden.
