Sophie Koch
Born (1969-02-19) 19 February 1969
Versailles, Yvelines, France
EducationConservatoire de Paris
OccupationOpera singer (mezzo-soprano)

Sophie Koch (born 19 February 1969) is a French operatic mezzo-soprano who made an international career, performing Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Royal Opera House, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss at the Semperoper in Dresden, and Charlotte in Massenet's Werther at the Paris Opera, among others. Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss became her signature role. She has also performed in concert and recital, and made recordings.

Early life

Koch was born in Versailles. Her family is from Alsace-Lorraine, and her great-grandfather was German.[1] Koch became interested in music at an early age. She started playing the piano at the age of 7, studied it for 15 years and also sang in a choir.[2] She began performing in operas at age 11.[2]

After obtaining the baccalaureate, she prepared for a diplôme d'études universitaires générales (DEUG) in literature, communication and language sciences, then hypokhâgne.[1] Following her failure at the audition to join the Sorbonne choir, and her meeting with Christa Ludwig, she became motivated to sing.[2] At the age of 21, she entered Jane Berbié's class[2] at the Conservatoire de Paris, from which she earned a First Prize diploma.[3] She also won first prize in the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch in 1994[3] and was awarded the Christel-Goltz Prize by the Semperoper in Dresden in 2001.[4] Her mastery of the Italian and English languages is precious to her, although she sings mainly in French and German.[2]

Koch is currently married and has a daughter.[2]

Career

In the 1997/98 season, Michel Glotz arranged an audition for Koch at the London Royal Opera House,[1] where she appeared as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, which brought her international recognition.[3][5] She appeared as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss at the Vienna State Opera in 1999, which became her signature role.[5] She performed another trousers role by Strauss, the Composer in his Ariadne auf Naxos at the Semperoper in Dresden. She appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni.[5] She performed at the Teatro Real in Madrid, La Scala in Milan, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Salzburg Festival, where she made her debut as Zerlina in 2000.[5]

In 2010, the Paris Opera invited her to perform Charlotte in Massenet's Werther alongside Jonas Kaufmann in the title role.[6] In concert performances of Bellini's Norma at the Opéra de Nice and Salle Pleyel in Paris in December 2011, she appeared as Adalgisa alongside Edita Gruberová in the title role.[6]

In Wagner stage works, Koch appeared as Venus in Tannhäuser at the Opéra Bastille in 2011. She was also Fricka there in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung.[5][6] She performed the title role of Gluck's Alceste in 2013,[6] conducted by Marc Minkowski, alongside Yann Beuron and Roberto Alagna. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the 2014 season, again as Charlotte alongside Kaufmann in Werther.[7]

In 2015 she performed the leading role of Sélika in the original version of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine, entitled Vasco da Gama, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.[8]

Recordings

CDs

DVDs

References

  1. 1 2 3 (in French) Mehdi Mahdavi. "La triple reconnaissance de Sophie Koch". Alta Musica.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 (in French) Valéry Fleurquin (27 January 2008). "Sophie Koch, mezzo". Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kutsch, Karl-J.; Riemens, Leo, eds. (2004). "Koch, Sophie". Großes Sängerlexikon (in German). Vol. 4. Walter de Gruyter. p. 2429. ISBN 978-3-59-844088-5.
  4. ↑ Nen, Patrice. "Sophie Koch". Opera national de Paris. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sophie Koch". Salzburg Festival. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Sophie Koch". francemusique.fr (in French). Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  7. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (19 February 2014). "Things End Badly for a Poet, but Quite Well for the Tenor". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  8. ↑ Solare, Carlos Maria. "Report from Berlin". Opera, vol. 67, no. 2, February 2016, pp. 193–194.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Sophie Koch at AllMusic
  10. ↑ "Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed in Italian / Conductor Thomas Hengelbrock", operadis-opera-discography.org
  11. ↑ "Charles Gounod: Faust" jpc.de
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Così fan tutte", Deutsche Grammophon
  13. ↑ "Richard Strauss / Der Rosenkavalier", Decca
  14. ↑ "Massenet / Jonas Kaufmann, Sophie Koch, Ludovic Tézier, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Orchestre de L'Opéra National de Paris, Michel Plasson – Werther" at Discogs
  15. ↑ "Werther (DVD) – Kaufmann, Koch, Tézier, Gillet", Metropolitan Opera
  16. ↑ "Richard Strauss / Ariadne auf Naxos", Deutsche Grammophon
  17. ↑ "Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) / Dialogues des Carmelites", jpc.de
  18. ↑ "Richard Strauss (1864–1949) / Der Rosenkavalier", jpc.de

Further reading

  • Manuel Brug: Die neuen Sängerstimmen. Hensche, Berlin, ISBN 3-89487-452-X, p. 273
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