Swedish soprano Agneta Eichenholz’ progress to her current position in the frontline of lyric sopranos in Europe began in 2007 when she was engaged to sing Carmina Burana at the Verbier Festival, while at the same time covering the title role in Haydn’s Armida at the Salzburger Festspiele with conductor Ivor Bolton and director Christof Loy.

 

This was the start of an international career which brought her to prominent opera houses like Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), Komische Oper (Berlin), Det Kongelige Teater (Copenhagen), Teatro del Liceu, Teatro Réal (Madrid), Salzburger Festspiele and Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London) collaborating with conductors as Ivor Bolton, Antonio Pappano, Peter Eötvös, Myung-Whun Chung, Laurence Cummings, Nicholas McGegan, Julia Jones, Marc Soustrot, Kristjan Järvi, Anu Tali, Andreas Stoehr a.o.

 

In June 2009, Agneta made her début appearing in the title role of Alban Berg’s Lulu at Covent Garden under the Antonio Pappano’s musical leadership. The production by Christof Loy moved to Madrid’s Teatro Réal in autumn 2009, again with Agneta in the title role. The DVD of the performance, issued by Opus Arte, was nominated for a Grammy Award 2010.

 

Agneta Eichenholz’s operatic repertoire is large and varied, encompassing such various roles as Lulu, Alcina, Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Elettra (Idomeneo), Violetta (La Traviata), Gilda (Rigoletto), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and Zdenka (Arabella) a.o. 

A personal success was her appearances in the world premieres of Christian Jost’s Rumour in Antwerp and Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s Der Sandmann at Theater Basel. Also in Basel, she has sung a phenomenal Daphne which success she could repeat at the Hamburg State Opera. Recently she succeded at Theater an der Wien with Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and as Isabella (Edward II) at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin.

 

Among Agneta’s future and actual engagements are at the Vienna State Opera, a concert version of Peer Gynt in Lyon aswell as her debut as Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito) in Antwerp.

 

Agneta Eichenholz has a full concert schedule and has appeared with all Swedish orchestras, including the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic and Gothenburg Symphony, as well as with L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Mozarteum Orchester, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Sinfonia Finlandia and Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra and her concert repertoire include works like Britten’s Les Illuminations, Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne, Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder and Lulu-suite, Poulenc’s La Dame de Monte Carlo, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder, Sibelius’ Lounnotar and orchestral songs and among her oratorio repertoire we find the soprano parts in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in c-minor.

 

Agneta Eichenholz received her musical education at the Malmö College of Music and the University College of Opera in Stockholm, followed by early successes in a string of roles at Folkoperan in Stockholm. At the inauguration of NorrlandsOperan’s new house in 2002 she received national acclaim for her interpretation of Felicia in The Isle of Bliss by Hilding Rosenberg, also available on CD (Phono Suecia PSCD 722).

 

July 2017