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The Swedish contralto, Maria Sanner, was already well established as a concert singer when, a few years ago, she decided to include the opera stage in her work field. She complemented her education with a masters degree in opera from Operahögskolan i Stockholm (2010-2012), and already before she finished her studies she made her Stockholm debut on the opera stage; the title role in George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare at Folkoperan 2012. This was followed by another title role at the Drottningholm Court Theatre: Il Giasone by Cavalli. Among the many scholarships she has been awarded to enable her studies are the Swedish Arts Grants Comittee (working scholarship for studies of Baroque music), the Royal Music Academy (several scholarships including Christina Nilsson), the Drottningholm Court Theater's Friends Foundation, the Stockholm Freemasons, the Helge Ax:son Johnsson Foundation, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and several others.
Maria Sanner is active as a free-lance singer since 2001. Within the opera repertoire her past performances include the world premiere of Carl Unander-Scharin’s opera The Elephant Man at Norrlandsoperan, a continued collaboration with this composer in the performance ”Sing the body electric” which was performed in Stockholm, Sweden, and in Cape Town, South Africa, (this performance featured interactive, electronic instruments, which the singers controlled with their choreographed body movements - see a video example from another, similar performance called Extended Opera down to the right on this page) she also sang the part of Clizia in Ristori’s opera Calandro at the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Germany, Third Lady in W.A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Dalhalla, Sweden, and in two productions of newly written operas at the International Vadstena Academy; 2003 in Byrgitta by Carl Unander-Scharin and 2004 in Planet Opus Opera by Staffan Lundén Welden.
Maria Sanner has recently appeared for example at Folkoperan in Stockholm in the critically acclaimed performances Ligetiland (in Ligeti’s piece Aventures) and Satyagraha by Philip Glass, in concerts at Poznan Baroque Festival (with the ensemble Kore in music by G.F. Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi) and at Opera Rara in Krakow (with Arte dei Suonatori in Johann Adolf Hasse’s serenata Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra). In summer 2017, she sang the part of Orfeo in Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice at Confidencen, Stockholm, conducted and staged by Arnold Östman (repeated summer 2018) and in the autumn she made her debut at the Royal Opera of Stockholm, as Elizabetha in Dracula. In spring 2018 she performed at Malmö Opera/Operaverkstan in Var är du Proserpin? as Pluto and she was a soloist with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Journal by Vivier.
Maria Sanner has a long experience as a concert singer and with an extensive repertoire, stretching from Baroque to contemporary music, she performs on most of Sweden’s major concert stages as well as abroad. She sang with conductors such as Eric Ericson, Arnold Östman, Alan Gilbert, Roy Goodman, Josep Pons, Martin Gester, Alexis Kossenko, Olof Boman, Manfred Honeck and Paul Goodwin and with Baroque ensembles such as Arte dei Suonatori (Poland), REbaroque and Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble (Sweden), and the percussion ensemble Kroumata. |
