For years, Swedish born Nina Stemme has been considered a leading singer of the most challenging parts in major dramas: Isolde, Brünnhilde and Kundry, Salome and Elektra, Fanciulla and Turandot.

That she initially shied away from these staggering heights of the soprano repertoire is a noteworthy – if not the defining – characteristic of her career. Mozart’s Cherubino is a far cry from Isolde and Turandot, a leap only few have mastered. Nina Stemme made the leap successfully by taking the time a development of this kind requires. When she was offered the part of Isolde, to be performed at the 2003 Glyndebourne Festival, she already had fourteen years of on-stage experience, having first taken lyrical parts such as Cherubino, Pamina, the “Figaro” Countess, Agathe and Eva, before moving on to increasingly lyrical-dramatic roles such as Mimi, Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Tosca, “Tannhäuser” Elisabeth, Marschallin and Senta.

Isolde would have been the next step, but it was not until she had conferred with Birgit Nilsson that she took the offer. To her surprise, the legendary Wagner singer offered to help her learn her part. Nonetheless, Nina Stemme felt she was not yet ready to sing Isolde. When she did take the stage as Isolde for the first time at Glyndeborne, her performance was met with enthusiasm and she subsequently made a record with Plácido Domingo singing as Tristan and Antonio Pappano as conductor. Even then, she remained cautious: “You are never ready with these gigantic roles”, she said in retrospect in her interview with the “New York Times”. 

Respect for the roles and the operas, flexibility, diversity and a level-headed estimation of her voice’s potential – these were the factors that, alongside her voice itself, talent and musicality, made this highly talented singer an artist of global stature. In 1993, she was rewarded when she won Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition. Whether at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala Milan, the Bayreuth Festival, the Vienna State Opera or the Royal Opera House in London – Nina Stemme has furthered the great tradition of Flagstad and Nilsson at leading opera houses. 

It comes as no surprise that she has been lavished with awards: She has been appointed Swedish Court Singer and Austrian “Kammersängerin”, Bavarian “Kammersängerin”, Honorary member of the Vienna State Opera, received the “Premio Abbiati” critics’ award (2010), the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2010), the International Opera Award for the Best Female Singer (2013) and the Opera News Award (2013), European Culture Award (2019), The Royal Philharmonic Society Singer Award (2019), The San Francisco Opera Medal (2023) to name but a few. The German specialist journal “Opernwelt” has crowned her Singer of the Year twice, in 2005 and 2012, and in 2018 she received the largest prize in the history of classical music; The Birgit Nilsson Prize.

It is clear to see how proud Sweden is of Nina Stemme, as is amply demonstrated by a generous list of honours, including the Birgit Nilsson scholarship , winner of Placido Domingos Operalia, “Litteris and Artibus” Royal medal (2008), the Jussi Björling Award (2016), the city of Stockholm’s Saint Eric medal (2017), International Swede of the Year 2018, Stockholms Studentsångare Singer Award (2020), an honorary doctorate from the University of Lund, and the Musical Export Prize of Honour, awarded to her by the Swedish government in 2016. Since 2004 she is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, and she was awarded the Royal Order of Vasa 2025.