Solveig Kringlebotn

Solveig Kringlebotn has had a long career as an internationally acclaimed singer, working with some of the finest orchestras, conductors, and directors.

Kringlebotn spent two years at the Norwegian Academy of Music before being admitted to the Opera School in Stockholm. She moved directly from her studies to leading roles at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and the Norwegian Opera. In 1991, she premiered Witold Lutosławski’s song cycle Chantefables et Chantefleurs during the Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, with the composer himself conducting. Two years later, she had her international opera breakthrough when she sang Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte at the Salzburg Festival under Christoph von Dohnányi. Invitations to the world’s leading opera houses soon followed, including the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, and La Scala. In Paris alone, she has sung 13 leading opera roles. She has toured with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, the Philharmonia Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. She has also participated in numerous CD and DVD recordings.

Kringlebotn is known as an advocate for Norwegian and Nordic art songs, partly because she began taking singing lessons from Randi Helseth at the age of 12, who herself was a renowned art song singer.

Choral music has always been close to her heart, and she sang in choirs from the age of six until she turned twenty. She has regularly performed contemporary music and has participated in world premieres such as Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater at the Paris Opera and Philippe Boesmans’ Reigen at La Monnaie in Brussels. In 2016, she performed Schönberg’s Erwartung at the newly built Philharmonie in Paris.

Kringlebotn has received numerous awards, including the Critics’ Prize, the Honorary Award of the Norwegian Cultural Council, the Anders Jahre Cultural Prize, the Lindeman Prize, and the Spellemann Prize. In 2004, she was appointed Knight 1st Class by King Harald.

In 2017, Solveig Kringlebotn was promoted to professor. She remains active as a singer, and in the autumn of 2018, she performed the role of Carlotta in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of the Opera when it was staged in Norway for the first time.