Karita Mattila

**Karita Marjatta Mattila** (born 5 September 1960) is a Finnish operatic soprano.

Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna State Opera, Toronto Roy Thomson Hall, and Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg.

## Career

Born in Somero, Finland, Mattila graduated 1983 from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she studied singing with Liisa Linko-Malmio. She then continued her studies with Vera Rózsa in London.

Also in 1983, Mattila won the first Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 1985, she made her Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut as Fiordiligi in Mozart's *Così fan tutte*.

She was seen as Emma in the first ever televised production of Schubert's *Fierrabras* at the Vienna State Opera in 1988. In 1990 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's *Don Giovanni*.

In 1994, she made her Spanish debut as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's *Eugene Onegin* in Madrid, and 1996 debuts in Paris in Wagner's *Lohengrin*, Verdi's *Don Carlos*.

Mattila has won Grammy Awards for "Best Opera Recording" for *Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg* in 1998 and for *Jenůfa* in 2004. She was awarded the Evening Standard Ballet, Opera and Classical Music Award for "Outstanding Performance of the Year" in 1998 for her performance of Elisabeth in *Don Carlos* at the Royal Opera House.

In 2001 *The New York Times* chose Karita Mattila as the best singer of the year for her performance in *Fidelio* at the Metropolitan Opera, and in the same year she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award "Outstanding Achievement in Opera".

Mattila's 2004 New York performances in *Salome* and subsequent *Káťa Kabanová* inspired the New York press to write: "When the history of the Metropolitan Opera around the time of the millennium is written, Karita Mattila will deserve her own chapter."

In 2005, she was named *Musician of the Year 2005* by *Musical America*, which describes her "the most electrifying singing actress of our day, the kind of performer who renews an aging art form and drives the public into frenzies." *BBC Music Magazine* named Mattila as one of the top 20 sopranos of the recorded era in 2007.

Worldwide audiences saw Mattila in *Manon Lescaut* live in movie theatres in 2008. Metropolitan's *Salome* and *Tosca* were seen live in High Definition worldwide in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

In 2010 at Opéra National de Lyon, Mattila created the role of Émilie du Châtelet in Kaija Saariaho's monodrama *Émilie*, which was dedicated to her.

In 2020, Mattila played a parody of herself as an opera diva stuck in Finland, in the new comic opera *Covid fan tutte*.

In December 2020 Mattila was awarded the Order of the Lion of Finland, Commander, First Class.

## Personal life

Mattila lives in Naples, Florida. In 1988 she met and, in 1992, married Tapio Kuneinen, who served as her manager; they divorced in February 2019.

She has been active on Twitter since October 2018, and has stated that it was a "lifesaver" after her divorce.

Upon the abrupt cancellation of her *Jenůfa* at the Royal Opera House in late February 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved to an apartment in Helsinki, Finland, until she was able to travel and work safely again and return home. She returned to Florida in April 2021.

## Recordings

### Solo recitals

* Arias & Scenes (Erato) cond. Yutaka Sado; Queen of Spades, Jenufa, Elektra.
* German Romantic Arias (Erato), Staatskapelle Dresden, cond. Sir Colin Davis; Beethoven, Weber.

**Lieder**

* Strauss: Orchestral Songs; Four Last Songs (DG)
* Strauss: Orchestral Songs (Sony Music Entertainment)
* Strauss: Hölderlin Lieder (Sony Music Entertainment)
* Sibelius Songs (Ondine)
* Grieg and Sibelius Songs (Erato)
* *Lollipops*; Canteloube, Villa-Lobos (Philips)
* *Sydän Suomessa* – From the Heart of Finland (Ondine), 1996, recital with Ilmo Ranta (piano); songs by Toivo Kuula, Oskar Merikanto, Erkki Melartin, Yrjö Kilpinen and folk songs.
* *Wild Rose* (Ondine) with Ilmo Ranta. Lieder by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler.
* *Modern Portrait* (Warner/Finlandia), 1995. Paul Hindemith *Das Marienleben*, song cycle for soprano & piano, Op. 27; Aulis Sallinen *Dream Songs*; Mikko Heinio song cycle *Vuelo de Alambre*

**Live**

* Karita Live! (Ondine) cond. Jukka Pekka Saraste; Wagner, Verdi, Strauss, Gershwin
* Helsinki Recital (Ondine), Martin Katz (piano); Duparc, Kaija Saariaho *Quatre instants*, Rachmaninov, Dvořák Gypsy songs.

**Compilations**

* Excellence – The Artistry of Karita Mattila (Ondine)

### Complete operas

* *Salome* (Sony Music Entertainment)
* *Káťa Kabanová* (Fra Musica)
* *Tosca* (Virgin)
* *Manon Lescaut* (EMI Classics)
* *Don Carlos* (EMI Classics)
* *Fidelio* (DG)
* *Die Meistersinger* (Decca, DG)
* *Simon Boccanegra* (TDK)
* *Jenůfa* (Erato)
* *Le nozze di Figaro* (Sony Music Entertainment)
* *Elmo Saves Christmas* (Decca)
* *Così fan tutte* (Philips)
* *Don Giovanni* (Philips)
* *Fierrabras* (DG)
* *Der Freischütz* (Decca)
* *Scenes from Goethe's Faust* (Sony Music Entertainment)

### Symphonic works

* Mozart: *Requiem* (DG)
* Beethoven: Symphony no. 9 (DG)
* Shostakovich: Symphony no. 14 (EMI Classics)
* Schoenberg: *Gurrelieder* (EMI Classics)
* Bernstein: Symphony no. 3 (Erato)
* Sibelius: *Kullervo* (BIS)
* Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 2 (DG)
* Schubert: Mass in E flat major; Mozart: Aria of the Angel, Laudate dominum (DG)

### Popular music

* *Fever* (Ondine)
* *Best of Evergreens* (Ondine)
* *Karita's Christmas* (Ondine)
* *Songs To The Sea*; Popular Melodies by Lasse Mårtenson (2001)

### DVDs

* *James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala* (1996), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, B0004602-09