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“Another Ljuba Welitsch? Ideal voices for Salome are hard
to come by, so Turid Karlsen may be just what lovers of Richard Strauss have been waiting for. From beginning to end, the
soprano provided exactly what Strauss wanted: a voice big enough to carry, yet still girlish, capable of spot-on high notes,
supple phrases and superb dynamic control from one end of her range to the other, with dramatic skill to project the heroine’s
complex pathology.”
Opera News
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“Vocally outstanding was Turid Karlsen's Isolde: the
right role at the right time and place, her singing distinguished by beautifully round tone, exemplary text articulation and
ease in the highest register. She sings with a lyrical foundation that sounds effortless and shows not the slightest
fatigue straight through to the deeply moving Liebestod.” -Neue Westfaelische Nachrichten |
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“Karlsen has a soprano with dramatic heft yet capable of delicacy and
an attractively fresh tone quality. She brought out the vulnerability in Leonora, and her singing performance just got stronger
all evening. Karlsen was able to do some voluptuous shaping of Verdi’s musical phrases. The high point of the evening
was a shimmering performance of the aria Leonora sings before going to her imprisoned Manrico.”
The Orange County Register
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Winner of the prestigious Kirsten Flagstad prize, TURID KARLSEN starred in three productions at
Opera Pacific, performing some of opera’s most challenging roles: Strauss' Salome, Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore
and Puccini's Turandot, the latter a role she also performed with the Opéra de Québec and Madison Opera.
She made hugely successful debuts at the Dallas and Montreal Operas, as Strauss' Ariadne and Giorgietta in Puccini's Il
Tabarro, respectively; sang fifteen performances of Turandot with Sweden’s Göteborg Opera,
and Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the Zeeland Nazomer Festival in Terneusen, Holland. She
just sang her first-ever Isolde (Bielefeld), made her Palm Beach Opera debut as Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio and
her Orlando Opera debut as Verdi's Leonora in Il Trovatore. In addition she opened the new Oslo opera house
as Senta, a performance telecast throughout Europe.
The Norwegian dramatic soprano’s extensive repertoire includes Wagner
(Elsa in Lohengrin, Eva in Die Meistersinger, Elisabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser, Gutrune in
Götterdämmerung), Richard Strauss (the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Arabella, Ariadne and
Salome), Mozart (Countess in Figaro, Elettra in Idomeneo), Johann Strauss (Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus);
her “signature” role of Leonore in Beethoven’s original and revised versions of Fidelio; Verdi’s
Aida, Janacek’s Jenufa, and Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz. In Germany she has performed
at the opera companies/festivals of Kassel, Freiburg, Augsburg, Kiel, Bonn, Karlsruhe, Hannover, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Düsseldorf,
Cologne and was recently seen by thousands in an all-Wagner concert at Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt. Conductors with whom
she has collaborated include Daniel Barenboim, Leon Botstein, John DeMain, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Eliahu Inbal, Hermann
Michael, Christof Perick, Eve Queler, Dennis Russell Davies, Yoav Talmi and Samuel Wong; stage directors include
Götz Friedrich, Werner Herzog, Tony Palmer, Jurij Ljubimov and Giancarlo del Monaco. The soprano has also been welcomed
at Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, New York’s Bard Festival (performing the music of Beethoven, Mahler and Janacek)
as well as London’s Royal Festival Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Ms. Karlsen’s astonishingly varied concert repertoire includes Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (which
she sang with the Quebec, Madison, Vancouver and Montreal Symphonies, as well as with orchestras in Austria and Portugal),
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa solemnis (the latter sung to high acclaim with both the Milwaukee
Symphony/Andreas Delfs and Phoenix Symphony/Michael Christie); Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, Poulenc’s Gloria,
the Dvocák Requiem and the Verdi Requiem (performed with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra). She made
a much-acclaimed Oslo Philharmonic debut, performing Grieg Songs with Mariss Jansons on the podium, sang Beethoven #9 with
both the Hong Kong and Oslo Philharmonics; was twice guest soloist with the distinguished Berlin Radio Choir and debuted with
the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas.
Ms. Karlsen began her musical studies at Holland’s Maastricht Conservatory.
Private studies followed with the renowned Ingrid Bjoner in Norway. Her recordings include Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony
with Antony Beaumont and the Czech Philharmonic and Krenek’s Karl V with the Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn
under Marc Soustrot.
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