Barbara Bonney
Barbara Bonney is one of her generation's most versatile singers, having achieved equal success with lied, oratorio, modern vocal music, and opera, and on top of all that having become a highly proficient cellist. Her smallish but well-projected voice is especially suited to Mozart, the lighter Richard Strauss operas, and all but the heaviest lieder, and she has been careful in her choice of repertoire; even in her fortiess, she can still call forth a fresh, girlish timbre when it is needed.
Her family was not a musical one, and it was only by chance that her parents discovered she had perfect pitch and a sense of music--when she was three, they noticed that she could perfectly imitate musical noises, such as the melody that one of the household clocks chimed. When she was older, she started piano, but found that she preferred the more songful tones of the cello. It was an interest in German that led to her singing career--as a college student at the University of New Hampshire she decided to spend a year studying at the University of Salzburg. She worked a wide variety of jobs to support herself, including cooking, selling produce at a vegetable stand, and copying music, and one day a friend suggested that she audition for the famed Mozarteum orchestra there. She hadn't brought her cello overseas with her, since the costs of shipping were prohibitive, so instead she prepared a song for her audition, and was offered a position as a lieder student. Spurred on by this success, she auditioned for the Darmstadt Opera (knowing only two arias out of the entire operatic repertoire), and was given the ingenue role of Anna in Nicolai's Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor). During her years with the company, she learned over forty operatic roles.
In 1984, she made her Vienna State Opera debut as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, a role which was to become one of her most famous. Another characteristic role, that of Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflõte, she first undertook in her 1985 La Scala debut. In 1987, she sang Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at Monte Carlo, which brought her to the attention of conductor Carlos Kleiber. Lucia Popp, too, greatly admired her Sophie, and when Popp relinquished the role, moving on to the Marschallin, she declared that she was passing it on to Bonney, the Sophie of the next generation. Her Met debut was in 1988, as Naiad in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. During the 1990s, increasingly able to pick and choose what roles and repertoire she would sing, she began to reduce her operatic roles to a few of her special favorites, such as Pamina, Susanna (in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro), and Ilia (in his Idomeneo), and adding a few new roles, such as Zdenka in Strauss's Arabella and Hanna Glawari (in Lehár's Die lustige Witwe [The Merry Widow]). Like Popp, she chose to drop the role of Sophie, leaving it for younger singers. This would allow her to spend more time singing lieder performances, and also to teach.
She was briefly married to baritone Hakan Hagegard. Among her recordings, her Mozart arias (London 460 571) and Schubert lieder (Teldec 90873) capture her voice and singing quite well.
© Ann Feeney /TiVo
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Mahler 4 / Berg: 7 Early Songs
Riccardo Chailly, Barbara Bonney, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 21 Feb 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orff: Carmina Burana
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Welcome to the Voice
Steve Nieve, Sting, Barbara Bonney, Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos.1 & 2; Lyric Suite; Sigurd Jorsalfar
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, Marianne Eklof, Barbara Bonney, Gösta Ohlin's Vocal Ensemble & Pro Musica Chamber Choir
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Operetta Album - Im Chambre séparée
Barbara Bonney, Ronald Schneider
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Mass in B minor, BWV232
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 21 Aug 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hasse: Salve Regina
Barbara Bonney, Bernarda Fink, Musica Antiqua Köln , Reinhard Goebel
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 7 Apr 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orff: Carmina Burana
Barbara Bonney, Frank Lopardo, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, André Previn
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Songs
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Nelson Mass / Arianna a Naxos
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, André Previn & R. Strauss: Songs & Arias (Live)
Barbara Bonney, André Previn, Franz Bartolomey
Classical - Released by belvedere edition on 10 Mar 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kraus: Arie e Cantate
Opera - Released by Musica Sveciae on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 114, D. 667 "Trout"
Barbara Bonney, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Rebecca Young, Edgar Meyer, Pamela Frank
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 23 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt / Schumann: While I dream
Barbara Bonney, Antonio Pappano
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Other Mozart
Barbara Bonney, Malcolm Martineau
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 17 Oct 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Classic FM: The Full Works)
Barbara Bonney, Matthias Goerne, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) on 1 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Royal Palace Music Festival (1995)
St. Petersburg Hermitage Orchestra, Barbara Bonney
Classical - Released by Figaro Music & Media Group on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Gloria; Bach: Magnificat
Barbara Bonney, Academy of Ancient Music, Peter Schreier, Simon Preston
Classical - Released by Decca (UMO) (Classics) on 1 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo