This week’s #RAArtistinFocus is soprano Julia Sporsén! With her performances described as “fiery” and “almost unbearably moving”, she is praised for her virtuosic and expressive singing as well as her captivating stage presence. This is being wonderfully showcased at Malmö Opera where she is currently making her debut, singing the role of Paulina Salas in Jonas Forssell’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ and receiving fantastic reviews:
“Julia Sporsén is something of a one-of-a-kind on a Swedish opera scene.” (Expressen.se)
“The final scene… is among the most beautiful I have seen. Quite simply, a triumph.” (Svenska Dagbladet)
Julia started her career in the UK, having trained at the Royal Academy of Music, and was a Harewood artist at ENO where she sang the title role in Martinu’s Julietta, and created roles in the world premieres of Julian Anderson’s The Thebans and Torsten’s Rasch’s The Duchess of Malfi. Other UK highlights include Katya Kabanova at Opera Holland Park, and Pat Nixon in Nixon in China and Komponist in Ariadne at Scottish Opera.
In 2023, she won one of Scandinavia's most prestigious awards - the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet's Opera Prize, awarded for her bold portrayal in the title role of Norma at Folkoperan Stockholm. At the presentation in Västerås concert hall, Julia premiered a new work written her, composed by Maria Lithell Flyg. Listen here.
Other roles at Folkoperan, showing her great versatility, include Judit in Bluebeard’s Castle, Isolde in Tristan and Isolde, and Violetta in La Traviata
In 2021/22 Julia was Artist in Residence at Kulturhuset Spira in Jönköping, which included a world premiere song cycle written for her by Tebogo Monnakgotla . Other concert highlights include performances with the Gothenburg Symphony and BBC Concert Orchestra. In 2023, she was chosen to sing at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Watch her perform Berlioz's 'Le spectre de la rose' here.
Born in Gothenburg and the daughter of two opera singers, Julia grew up in the Gothenburg Opera House and retains a strong connection there. She’s delighted to appear regularly there next season when she will sing the title role in Iolanta, Desdemona in Otello, a recital featuring Fauré’s song cycle 'La bonne chanson’ as part of the Grandi Voci series, and a number of opera aria concerts this summer across the region.
