HILLEVI MARTINPELTO SOPRANO BIOGRAPHY
Soprano Hillevi Martinpelto debuted at the Royal Opera in Stockholm as Cio Cio San in Madame Butterfly and has since performed on most of the world’s leading opera and concert hall stages, for example in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Dresden, Leipzig, Salzburg, Vienna, Milan, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, Brussels, Edinburgh, London (where she participated in 8 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall), Glyndebourne, New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Tokyo and Hong Kong. She has worked with conductors such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, René Jacobs, Zubin Mehta, Esa Pekka Salonen, Sir Charles Mackkerras, Donald Runnicles, Ivor Bolton, Vladimir Jurowski, Sylvain Cambreling to name a few.
During her many years of career, she has made herself known as a Mozart interpreter and has sung many of his heroine roles, such as Pamina (The Magic Flute), Fiordilig (Così fan tutte), Countess Almaviva (Figaro’s wedding), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Elettra ( Idomeneo) and Vitellia (Titus’ gentleness). Hillevi was recently involved in Salieri vs Mozart at the Folk Opera, where she together with Loa Falkman participated in a composition of the works Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov and Prima la musica e poi le parole by Antonio Salieri.
In addition to this, Hillevi has also sung a number of other roles, such as Aida, Desdemona (Otello), Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Alice (Falstaff), Leonora (The Troubadour), Amelia (The Masquerade Ball), Iphigénie (Aulide & Tauride), Tatiana ( Eugen Onegin), Agathe (Friskytten), Rezia (Mästersångarna), Elsa (Lohengrin), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Marguerite (Faust by both Gounod and Spohr) and the Marshal (Rosenkavaljeren).
Hillevi Martinpelto also has an extensive concert repertoire, such as Beethoven’s 9th, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B minor Mass, Verdi and Brahms’ Requiem, Wagner’s Wesendoncklieder, Vier Letzte Lieder by Strauss, Gurrelieder by Schönberg, Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony and 4, Mahlers 4 8.
Hillevi Martinpelto has participated in several recordings, mainly on Deutsche Grammophon and EMI. Among other things, she has collaborated several times with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in opera and concert contexts and on recordings: Mozart’s Countess and Elettra, Beethoven’s Leonore (1805), Alice Ford, Rezia in Oberon and Schuman’s Faust Scenes. Her other recordings include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Sir Simon Rattle, Vitellia in Titus’ gentleness with Sir Charles Mackerrras, Gustavo III (Verdi’s first version of the Masquerade Ball) with Maurizio Barbacini and Don Carlos with Alberto Hold- Garrido.
In 2004 Hillevi Martinpelto received the royal award Litteris et Artibus and in 2006 she was appointed royal court singer. She is also a member of the Royal Academy of Music.
