Tina Kiberg Danish soprano

Bernadette Colomine
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Danish soprano Tina Kiberg belonged for many years to the ensemble of Copenhagen Royal Theatre for many years. Here she made her debuts in many important roles: as Jeanne in Penderecki‘s The devils of Loudon, Venus and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Kundry in Parsifal, in the title role of Elektra, as Marie in Wozzeck, as Foreign Princess in Rusalka, as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus or als Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, in Siegfried and in Götterdämmerung, as Gräfin in Capriccio, as Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimesor als Leonore in Fidelio.

Tina Kiberg Danish soprano born 1958

Biography 

Born 30 December 1958 in 1958 in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen. Tina Sarsøe was the daughter of the opera singer Claus Lembek (1929–2010) and the singing pedagogue Birgit Sarsøe. On 11 February 1990, she married the opera singer Stig Fogh Andersen (born 1950). 

She was brought up in Birkerød together with her mother and her husband, Erling Kiberg, and her three half sisters. She did not meet her biological father until her early 20s. From 1975, she attended the Royal Danish Conservatoire where she took singing lessons in parallel with her high school education in Birkerød Gymnasium where she matriculated in 1977. 

From 1981 to 1985, she continued her training at the Royal Theatre’s Opera Academy. While there, she made her début in 1983 as Leonora in Carl Nielsen’s Maskarade. The following year she was placed second and won a gold medal at the Benson and Hedges international voice competition in London. In 1988, as a guest in Geneva, she took the role of Agathe in Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz.

Her Wagnerian roles have included Else in Lohengrin which she has performed in Copenhagen, Vienna, Brussels, Zurich, Houston and a number of cities in Germany. In the 1990s, she played Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Eva in Die Meistersinger.   In 1995, she was the first female Danish opera singer to appear at New York’s Metropolitan Opera when she sang Pamina in The Magic Flute. 

In 2010, she was diagnosed with throat cancer. She thought it could put a stop to her singing career. After several months’ treatment, she slowly began to recover but it was not until May 2012 that she returned to the stage appear in Parsifal. By 2014, she was appearing regularly at the Royal Theatre. 

Tina Kiberg performed in nearly all major European opera houses in roles like Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Agathe in Der Freischütz, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, in the title role of Arabella and Salome, as Chrysothemis in Elektra, Lisa in The Queen of Spades, Elsa in Lohengrin, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde or as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer.
At Bayreuth Festival she debuted in the part of Elisabeth, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Pamina.

She is working with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Sylvain Cambreling, Myung-Whun Chung, Klauspeter Flor, Michael Gielen, Hartmut Haenchen, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Armin Jordan, Gustav Kuhn, James Levine, Charles Mackerras, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Donald Runnicles, Leif Segerstam, Steven Sloane, Horst Stein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Marcello Viotti, Lothar Zagrosek …

As a concert singer she was heard in, among others, Beethoven‘s 9th symphony and Missa solemnis, Janacek‘s Glagolitic Mass, Mahler‘s Das klagende Lied, 2nd and 8th symphony, Schumman‘s Das Paradies und die Peri, Schubert‘s Mirjam’s Siegesgesang, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder, Szymanowsky‘s and Dvorak‘s Stabat mater as well as in Verdi‘s Requiem, Zemlinsky‘s Lyrische Symphonie, Schönberg‘s Gurre-Lieder or Britten‘s War Requiem.

Among her recordings are: C. Nielsen‘s Saul og David under Neeme Järvi, Beethoven‘s Missa solemnisunder Dorati and Barenboim, Janacek‘s Glagolitic Mass under Charles Mackerras, C. E. F. Weyse‘s Sovedrikken as well as a CD with songs by Danish composers.

At the royal Theatre in Copenhagen she was awarded the title Kammersängerin.

Bayreuther Festspiele

Kiberg sang in Bayreuth between 1992-98

Metropolitan Opera

[Met Performance] CID:322270
Die Zauberflöte {307}
Metropolitan Opera House; 10/28/1995
Debuts: Tina Kiberg, Andrew Jablon, Zachary McDonald, Peter Schneider
[Met Performance] CID:322310
Die Zauberflöte {308}
Metropolitan Opera House; 11/1/1995
[Met Performance] CID:322390
Die Zauberflöte {310}
Metropolitan Opera House; 11/9/1995

Experienced performances

Opera Roll Operahus Datum
Spader Dam Lisa Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 30.10.2000
Tristan och Isolde Isolde Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 31.8.2002
Valkyrian Brünnhilde Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 28.4.2003
Tosca Tosca Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 9.10.2003
Peter Grimes Ellen Orford Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 4.3.2004
Elektra Chrysothemis Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 5.3.2005
Macbeth Lady Macbeth Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 10.9.2005
Siegfried Brünnhilde Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 14.5.2005
Siegfried Brünnhilde Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 28.4.2006
Rusalka Prinsessan Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 12.3.2008
Tannhäuser Elisabeth Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 19.12.2010
Rusalka Prinsessan Den Kongelige Opera i Köpenhamn 25.11.2013

 

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