Jennifer Larmore’s operatic début in 1986 as ‘Sesto’ in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in France marked the start of a brilliant international career in which operas of Rossini, Bellini, Mozart and Handel have come to figure prominently. She has appeared in her signature role ‘Rosina’ from Il barbiere di Siviglia to extraordinary acclaim in Paris, Amsterdam, Bonn, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Bilbao, Milan, Vienna and London. It was this role that she chose for her Metropolitan Opera début in 1995. Miss Larmore was first heard at La Scala in Le Comte Ory, later returning for L’enfant et les sortilčges as well as Il barbiere di Siviglia. She has appeared as ‘Romeo’ in I Capuleti e I Montecchi in Lisbon, Vaison-la Romaine, Geneva, Paris and New York. Adding yet another Rossini heroine to her repertoire, Miss Larmore sang ‘Isabella’ in L’italiana in Algeri to equal success in Torino, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Vienna, New York and Paris. She made her Salzburg Festival début in 1993 as ‘Dorabella’ in Cosi fan tutte and her debut as ‘Charlotte’ in Massenet’s Werther at the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna in 2000.
Miss Larmore’s love of early music has allowed her to perform and record the role of ‘Ottavia’ from Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Bologna, Montpellier and the Early Music Festival in Innsbruck, Austria. As a champion of the music of Handel, Miss Larmore has triumphed in the title role in Giulio Cesare in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Paris, Beaune, Berlin, Montreux and Brussels and in two seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her definite recording of this work on the Harmonia Mundi label was selected to receive the Grammophone Award for ‘Best Baroque Opera of the Year’.
Jennifer Larmore is equally at home on the concert stage with a wide-ranging repertory extending from Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Magnificat to Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Mahler’s Rückertlieder, which she has sung not only at the Vienna Musikverein with Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic, but also at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Her recording of Berlioz’ La Damnation de Faust, under the direction of Günther Neuhold on the Bayer label was followed by performances with the Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi. She gave her debut with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Kurt Masur with Mahler’s Lied von der Erde. Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder was recorded with the Dresdner Staatskapelle conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli for the Teldec label, and performed at the opening of the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Festival Season under the direction of Mariss Jansons. Miss Larmore’s Prague Spring Festival debut under Marco Guidarini was a wildly successful event.
Jennifer Larmore’s prodigious discography now extends to nearly four-dozen recordings. Lucia di Lammermoor and Semiramide (the first of her five Grammy nominations) for Deutsche Grammophon. Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Orfeo, Gulio Cesare, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and ‘Jennifer Larmore – A Portrait’ for Harmonia Mundi. For RCA, ‘The Faces of Love’, a collection of songs by Jake Heggie.
In 1994 Miss Larmore signed an exclusive recording contract with Teldec Classics International. Her opera recordings for the Teldec label include Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola and L’italiana in Algeri, Orpheé, Carmen, Rigoletto and Hänsel and Gretel. Concert recordings include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Duruflč’s Requiem, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder and de Falla’s El amor brujo. Her solo recordings include the Grammy nominated CD’s of Handel and Mozart arias, ‘Where Shall I Fly’, ‘Call Me Mister’ and ‘My Native Land’, a collection of American songs with pianist Antoine Palloc. Jennifer Larmore was featured in the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic games when she returned to her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia to sing the Olympic Hymn. Teldec celebrated this event with a portrait CD entitled ‘Born in Atlanta’, released in August 1996. A collection of French Opera Arias, “L’Etoile”, has been released by Warner music in May 2003.
For the Arabesque label, Miss Larmore recorded Rossini songs, duets and quartets with John Aler and Arleen Auger. For the Opera Rara label, releases include Rossini’s Bianca e Falliero and Pacini’s Carlo di Borgogna, both under the direction of David Parry and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The rarely heard Elisabetta d’Ingliterra was released in September 2002.
Engagements have included Miss Larmore’s debut in the title roles of Carmen with Placido Domingo as Don José and La Cenerentola for Los Angeles Opera. For the Metropolitan ‘Guiletta’ in The Tales of Hoffmann, as well as the title roles in La Cenerentola and Italiana. She gave her Chicago Lyric Opera debut as ‘Ruggiero’ alongside Renée Fleming in Handel’s Alcina. European highlights have included Italiana and Carmen at the Vienna Staatsoper and her return to the Bastille in Paris to sing La Damnation de Faust with Seiji Ozawa. Operatic appearances in 2001/02 included ‘Sesto’ in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in Barcelona and Carmen in Washington, ‘Hänsel’ in Hänsel and Gretel at the MET and in Rome. In 2001, Miss Larmore gave her Australian debut in a triumphant series of concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Manfred Honeck.
First in a series of video and DVD recordings released by VAI is ‘Jennifer Larmore in Performance’, with Antoine Palloc at the piano, recorded live in New York in January 2001. This video features a program of songs and arias by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Weill, Debussy, Heggie, Barber, Obradors and Nin.
Engagements in 2002/03 include Giulio Cesare in Madrid, Werther in Bilbao and Lisbon, Semiramide in Berlin, ‘Orlovsky’ in Die Fledermaus at the MET and in Japan, and La Damnation de Faust for San Juan, recitals with accompanist Antoine Palloc in South America, Hong Kong and Europe.
The coming season will see Miss Larmore as ‘Giulietta’ in The Tales of Hoffmann at Covent Garden, as Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust at the Bastille, and as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Trieste Opera. She will also appear in concert with Richard Hickox and the LSO and the BBC NOW, Martin Haselböck and the Wiener Akademie and Jean-Christophe Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus.