Mezzo-Soprano
Finnish mezzo-soprano Monica Groop´s wide-ranging career is based upon repertory of great music adventurousness. The Nordic singer´s repertory is a rich and varied mixture of Baroque, solid classical repertoire and modern masters.
Monica Groop has received international acclaim as an interpreter of baroque music and has appeared with conductors Ivor Bolton, Franz Brüggen, Eric Ericson, Gottfried von der Goltz, Paul Goodwin, Philippe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, Ton Koopman, Sigiswald Kuijken, Andrew Manze, Trevor Pinnock, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier and Bruno Weil.
She has performed with many of the major opera companies around the world: The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Frankfurter Oper, Bayrische Staatsoper, Royal Opera of Stockholm, Los Angeles, New York City Opera, St Fé Opera, Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris, Toulouse, Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, Aix-en-Provence, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Teatro Real in Madrid.
After her her debut at Covent Garden in 1991 in the roles of Waltraute and Wellgunde in Götz Friedrich´s production of the Ring conducted by Bernard Haitink she returned to Covent Garden as Varvara in Katá Kabanová (1994), Cherubino (1998) and Octavian in the Rosencavalier (2000).
Her operatic roles include among others Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Ramiro (La Finta Giardiniera), Zenobia (Radamisto), Ruggiero (Alcina), Cyrus (Belshazzar), Carmen, Oktavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Der Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos), Charlotte (Werther), Marguerithe (La Damnation) Mélisande (Pelleas et Mélisande), Ascanio (Benvenuto Cellini), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Varvara (Kátá Kabanova), Olga (Eugen Onegin), Lucretia (The rape of Lucretia), Pélérin (L´amour de loin), Anna (Daddy´s girl) and Adriana (Adriana Mater).
Alongside her extensive operatic career Ms Groop has been in great demand as concert soloist and she has appeared with numerous orchestras and conductors all over the world. Her large concert repertoire includes song cycles by Mahler, Elgar, Berlioz, Martin, Berg, Zemlinsky, Schoenberg and Wagner.
She has performed works composed for and dedicated to her by several finnish contemporary composers like Kaija Saariaho, Tapio Tuomela, Kalevi Aho and Per-Henrik Nordgren.
The DVD of Saariaho´s L´amour de loin (Deutsche Grammofon), in which she performs the much acclaimed role of the Pilgrim, was released in 2006, and was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Jury Award, as well as The Grammophone magazine´s DVD of the month.
An accomplished recitalist, Ms Groop has given solo recitals at New York´s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, London´s Wigmore Hall and Musikverein in Vienna. She appears regularly with pianists András Schiff, Rudolf Jansen, Roger Vignoles, Ilmo Ranta and Gustav Djupsjöbacka.
A prolific recording artist, Ms Groop has made over sixty recordings.
She has recorded all of Edvard Grieg´s 170 songs (7 CDs)for the swedish BIS label,
Sibelius songs (BIS), Loewe songs (CPO), and complete Allan Pettersson songs (CPO), French opera arias, Arie amorose and Bach Alto Cantatas (Finlandia). She also records for Sony, Decca, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Accent and Ondine.