Julia Kleiter

Soprano Julia Kleiter specializes in Classical-era opera, often performing and recording little-known works. Her repertory extends back to the High Baroque and forward to the late 19th century, and she also often appears as a concert singer and in lieder recitals. Kleiter was born May 5, 1980, in Limburg an der Lahn in southwestern Germany. In Limburg's fine medieval cathedral, she sang in the Mädchenkantorei, or girls' chorale, and then in cathedral's main choir. Hooked on the idea of a vocal career, she took singing classes at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and the Musikhochschule Köln with William Workman and Klesie Kelly, respectively. At first, she envisioned a career as a performer in concert works, but that changed after her successful debut in 2004 as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, K. 620, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. She became identified with that opera, singing Pamina repeatedly as well as the comic role of Papagena under conductor Claudio Abbado. Kleiter has also appeared in other well-known Mozart roles, but her repertoire also extends to rarely performed works like Johann Christian Bach's Lucio Silla (1776) and Schubert's Fierabras, D. 796, which she performed at the Salzburg Festival in 2014. She is equally comfortable working under historical-instrument conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, for whom she sang the role of Serpetta in Mozart's La finta giardiniera, K. 196, and modern orchestral figures such as Franz Welser-Möst; for him, she played Zdenka in Richard Strauss' Arabella. In the 2018-2019 season, for the first time, Kleiter sang the role of the Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492, at the Royal Opera House in London. Kleiter has also performed in her original specialty of concert music and given lieder recitals, and she has made recordings in both these fields. In 2018, she was heard with the Bachchor and Bachorchester Mainz in a recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, and two years later, she was featured on Volume 6 of the Hyperion label's cycle of Liszt songs, with pianist Julius Drake. ~ James Manheim