―Is it the first time for you to sing the role of Giulio Cesare?

Yes. Actually, twenty years ago I was in a production of Giulio Cesare at the opera house in Hanover in Germany where I sang the smaller part of Nireno. So I've been through the whole opera, and in that production I was on stage all the time because I had a kind of narrator role. So this experience will prove very useful for me.

―Looking at your career, I would say you have been more known as a concert and oratorio singer, especially in the baroque and earlier genres. In Japan, you've worked a lot with Bach Collegium Japan (BCJ). Do you need a different approach when singing Händel's operas on the stage?

For me, it's not such a big step from doing the oratorios of the time to doing the opera. It's the same musical language, the same way of using the voice, although also what's great about Händel or Vivaldi's music is that you're allowed to use more voice than in the German repertoire. The music allows you to be somehow more "operatic". That gives free invitation to the music because of course this music by Händel is in many ways like pop music of today and it was made to entertain. You can hear all the effects he uses to make people love the music.
In my career I've done mostly concert repertoire, but the reason I've done less opera is because of family and children. It was a career choice. But now my children are quite big, so I can do more opera.

―You have recently sung in some baroque operas such as Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Opera Comique in Paris, and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Bolshoi in Moscow. Do you enjoy the acting side of opera?

Yes, I do really. Maybe more and more I would say, because you can go into the true essence of the music and text. I particularly like to work with the roles that are substantial and have a lot of integrity such as Dido and Cesare. They demand quite a lot from your personality.

―You have worked regularly with the conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini. How is it to work with him?

I know Rinaldo well for many years. We met for the first time at the Oslo Opera House in 2008 in a staging of Monteverdi's Orfeo. Since then, I've done things with him regularly. I think he has real integrity in the way he makes music, and I really respect this. For me, it feels like it all comes from inside of him. He's not trying to prove anything. This is the way of music making that I really respect and I think it gives the best result when it really comes from the heart.
I remember at the first rehearsal of Orfeo with the singers, he started to work immediately on the text and that was a scary moment, but actually it was really great. For Giulio Cesare too, it will be fantastic because it's a wonderful story and it has strong characters in the opera. To try to get the sense out of the text will be really amazing.

―How did you get into early music and baroque music?

When I studied in Oslo, there were many opportunities for us young singers to take part in baroque music productions with professional musicians. So I was quite early drawn into that environment. I also got to work with conductors from other countries when I was 21 or 22 years old. Around that time, I listened a lot to Bach with J. E. Gardiner and Monteverdi recordings with Alessandrini, and the music really resonated with me. I heard how they did it and I felt I could do it the same way.
But I wasn't really trained in early music and my teachers at the Academy didn't really know much about it either. Actually, they didn't think my voice suited this repertoire. So I had to learn it from other sources, conductors and musicians, which is a good way.

―How would you describe your singing voice?

Sometimes people find it difficult to place me in a voice category. Maybe a "lyrical mezzo-soprano", but I can do higher roles. I'm definitely not a contralto though. Cesare is a real mezzo role, but with the cadenzas, I can go up in the higher register. That's the amazing thing with this music. There is so much liberty and it's nice to release yourself and to do variations and improvising. That is a wonderful part of this music.

―How has your voice changed over the twenty years, and what kind of repertoire would you like to sing in the future?

My voice is getting bigger. I feel I can fill the halls more than I did twenty years ago. I work with technique all the time. And then let's see how it goes. I'm a bit curious to see if I can try to explore the higher register of the voice into more dramatic repertoire.

―Who have been your idols, your mentors as a singer?

There are a couple of singers who have inspired me. Janet Baker was one of my biggest idols. I think she was a complete performer in many ways. She did all sorts of repertoire, including the role of Cesare. Also at an early stage, I was inspired by the Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter. Lately I've been more inspired by the earlier generations of singers from the 1930s and 1940s. There wasn't as much pressure on them as the singers today, so I think their voices and techniques are so pure. It's really interesting to listen to how they are using their voice. As a young singer, I was able to take lessons from an American voice teacher called Oren Brown, and his way of teaching how to sing has really followed me all the way through my career. His philosophy of singing technique was to allow the voice to develop in a natural way.

―Could you tell us a little about your previous work in Japan?

The first time I went to Japan was in 2005, for a Bach cantata project with Joshua Rifkin in Osaka and Tokyo. Then the following year I worked with BCJ for the first time, and since then I've been back almost every year. I've also been to Japan on tours with European groups. My only previous opera project in Japan was in 2015 when I sang in Vivaldi's rarely performed L'Oracolo in Messenia in Yokohama with Fabio Biondi and a Japanese director.

―Finally, a message to your fans?

I'm extremely looking forward to this production because firstly it's with Rinaldo Alessandrini, secondly it's in Tokyo and I love Japan, and thirdly it's a beautiful scenic production. These three things have to be the perfect combination!

(Interview by GOTOH Nahoko)