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The American mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Larmore, attended Westminster Choir College in New Jersey and trained with Robert McIver, John Bullock and Regina Resnik.
Jennifer Larmore is an outstanding mezzo-soprano, well known for her versatility, natural beauty and stage craft. This artist has a wide ranging repertoire, having begun with the coloratura roles of the Baroque and bel canto then adding music from the Romantic and Contemporary periods. She began her career at Opera de Nice in 1986 with W.A. Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and went on to sing at virtually every major opera house in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris Opera, Berlin Deutsche Oper, and London Covent Garden. In 1988, she sang Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (Jérôme Savary production in Strasbourg). She made her Carnegie Hall debut as Romeo (Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi) in 1994 and her Metropolitan Opera debut as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1995. She went on to sing at the Met in La Cenerentola (Angelina), Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (Hansel), Les Contes d'Hoffmann (Giulietta), George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare (title role), L'italiana in Algeri (Isabella), Die Fledermaus (Prince Orlofsky), the world premiere of An American Tragedy (Elizabeth Griffiths), and Hamlet (Gertrude).
In 2012, Jennifer Larmore began adding dramatic soprano roles to her repertoire, expanding it to include new roles such as Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg's Lulu which she debuted to great success at Covent Garden in the Christof Loy production with Tony Pappano, then again in Madrid, at Paris Opera Bastille and in the William Kentridge production at the Nederlandse Opera. She has become well known for Kostelnička Buryjovka in Janacek's Jenůfa which she performed with Donald Runnicles at Berlin Deutsche Oper. The DVD of this production was nominated for a Grammy. She reprised her Kostelnička in this same production for the New National Theater in Tokyo. Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s opera Macbeth is a role she debuted in a striking new production of Christoph Loy at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In 2013, she reprised the role Lady Macbeth in a new Robert Wilson production for the celebrations of Verdi's bicentenary at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and in Reggio Emilia. In 2013 she also starred in the world premiere of The Fall of Fukuyama, a new opera by Gregoire Hetzel and Camille de Toledo. Her first Eboli was in the French version of Don Carlos at the Caramoor Music Festival in New York with Will Crutchfield and she sang Jocasta in Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex at the Bard Festival. She reprised the role of Gräfin Geschwitz in Lulu in a new production of William Kentridge with Lothar Zagrosek conducting for the Dutch Opera and most recently debuted the role of Mère Marie in Francis Poulenc's Les dialogues des carmélites at the Caramoor Festival, New York and Hélène in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène at the Hamburg State Opera. She went back to her roots with Ottavia in Monteverdi's l'Incorronazione di Poppea at the Theater an der Wien in October 2015.
Throughout her illustrious career Jennifer Larmore has enjoyed an evolution in repertoire and voice, which has brought her new roles along the way. One of those roles is Elvira in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni which she sang for the first time at Theater an der Wien in December 2016 and Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck for Opera de Genève in February, 2017. In May, 2017 she will reprise the role of Geschwitz in Lulu at the Rome Opera.
Symphonic repertoire plays a large role in Jennifer Larmore's career with the works of Gustav Mahler, Schoenberg, W.A. Mozart, de Falla, Debussy, Berlioz and Barber featuring prominently. she has enjoyed great collaborations with world orchestras under the direction of Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Bonynge, Christoph von Dohnányi, Thomas HengelbrockRené Jacobs, Jesús López-Cobos, Lorin Maazel , Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Christophe Rousset, Donald Runnicles, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Jean-Christophe Spinosi.
With her frequent collaborator Antoine Palloc, Jennifer Larmore has made many International recital tours, including appearances in Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Vietnam, Vienna, London, San Juan, Prague, Melbourne, Brussels, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Sao Paolo, Athens and Copenhagen, as well as all the major American venues.
Jennifer Larmore, in collaboration with the double bass player Davide Vittone has created an ensemble called Jennifer Larmore and OpusFive. The three programs they offer are entertaining and varied with Songs and Arias, Cabaret/Operetta and Movies and Broadway which feature string quintet and voice. They have given concerts in Seville, Pamplona, Valencia, Las Palmas, Venice, Amiens, Aix en Provence, Dublin and Paris.
Jennifer Larmore has recorded widely for the Teldec, RCA, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Arabesque, Opera Rara, Bayer, Naive, Chandos, VAI and Cedille labels in over one hundred CD's to date. In addition to Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, she has recorded leading roles in Georges Bizet's Carmen, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, La Cenerentola, L'italiana in Algeri, Bianca e Falliero, Giulio Cesare, La Sofonisba, Orphée et Eurydice, Zanetto, Hansel and Gretel, and I Capuleti e i Montecchi. She has also appeared in supporting roles in l'Incoronazione di Poppea, Maria Stuarda, Francesca di Foix, Elvida, Adelaide di Borgogna, Il Signor Bruschino, Semiramide, Rigoletto, Carlo di Borgogna, Alessandro nelle Indie and Offenbach's Vert-Vert. She has recorded two charming books on tape by Kim Maerkl entitled “Mozart’s Magical Night” with Hélène Grimaud and the Bavarian State Orchestra and “The King’s Daughter” with story and music for flute and string orchestra by Kim Maerkl with the flute player Natalie Schwaabe. She appears as the mezzo-soprano soloist in recordings of Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, W.A. Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, El Amor Brujo, and El sombrero de tres picos. Her solo CD's are "Where Shall I Fly", "Born in Atlanta", "Jennifer Larmore", "A Portrait, Call Me Mister", "Amore per Rossini", "Rossini Songs", "Royal Mezzo", "Jennifer Larmore", "Great Operatic Arias", "Bravura Diva", and "My Native Land".
Her DVD’s include “Jennifer Larmore in Performance” for VAI, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Netherlands Opera), L’Italiana in Algeri (Opera de Paris), La Belle Hélène (The Hamburg Opera), Orlando Furioso (Opera de Paris), Jenufa (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Lulu (Royal Opera House) and "Jennifer Larmore" in Recital (recorded live at the Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, New York)..
In addito her many activities, travels, performances, master classes and causes, author Jennifer Larmore is working on books that will bring a wider public to the love of opera. Her book “Una Voce” was released recently and delves into the psychology of the performer. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble bookstores and Lulu.com.
Jennifer Larmore has won the 1994 Richard Tucker Award, 1992 Gramophone award for Giulio Cesare on Harmonia Mundi in which she sang the title role, and the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for Hansel and Gretel. She sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Atlanta and hosted a satellite radio show for two years called Backstage with Jennifer Larmore. Also in 1996 she performed during a tribute to Gene Roddenberry on the live TV special Star Trek 30 Years and Beyond. In 2002, she received the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Government in recognition of her contributions to the world of music She lives in Paris with her husband and Pomeranian Buffy. Among her pupils and/or singers who have attended her master-classes: Fanny Becerra (Soprano), Robin Bier (Contralto), Marián Krejčík (Baritone), Tabita Martínez (Soprano), Mitchell Widmer (Baritone). |
