Julia Sporsén

Soprano

"Julia Sporsén was a terrific Nedda, feisty, fiery, vocally secure and dramatically impressive."

Hugo Shirley, Opera

"Julia Sporsén’s gorgeously sung Donna Anna."

The Independent

"Julia Sporsén has a thrillingly powerful voice – a core of steel wrapped in a casing of velvet."

Warwick Thompson Metro

"Julietta is sung by the sexy, charismatic, pretty-voiced Julia Sporsén, a complete stage animal ... who deserves to go far."

Andrew Clark, The Financial Times

"But the biggest plaudits must go to Peter Hoare and Julia Sporsén as the bewitched, bothered, and bewildered lovers, both acting as brilliantly as they sing."

Michael Church, The Independent

"Her Violetta is magnificent and human, bewildering and crystal clear. It is a singer’s breakthrough that will be difficult to forget."

Björn Wiman, Dagens Nyheter

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Swedish soprano Julia Sporsén is known for the intensity with which she portrays her characters. Her performances have been described as “fiery” (Opera Magazine), “searing” (The Sunday Times), and “almost unbearably moving” (The Spectator), and she is praised for her virtuosic and expressive singing as well as her stage presence and captivating acting skills.

Julia has sung roles including Katya in Weinberg’s The Passenger, the title role in Martinu’s Julietta and Rosalinde Die Fledermaus for English National Opera, where she also created two roles in world premieres: Julia in Torsten Rasch’s new opera The Duchess of Malfi, and Antigone in Julian Anderson’s Thebans for English National Opera. She also created Regan in the world premiere of Promised End by Alexander Goehr for English Touring Opera.

Julia enjoys a close relationship with Opera Holland Park, where she has sung Katya Kabanova, Micaela, Gilda and Nedda to critical acclaim. Other notable appearances include Tebaldo Don Carlos for Opera North (also recorded for Chandos Records), Kumudha in John Adams’s opera A Flowering Tree, Pamina and Micaela for Göteborg Opera, Micaela for the Royal Swedish Opera and Violetta for Folkoperan in Stockholm.

Recent and future highlights include a return to Scottish Opera as Pat Nixon Nixon in China and Fleana in Zingari, Fox Gold-Spur The Cunning Little Vixen with Opera Holland Park, Young Girl in Schoenberg’s Moses and Aaron at the George Enescu Festival in Budapest, Ingeborg in Elfrida Andrés opera Fritiofs saga, and Waltraute in Die Walküre at Gothenburg Opera, and a return to Folkoparen in Stockholm for Isolde Tristan and Isolde.

In 2021/22, she takes up the position of Artist in Residence at Kulturhuset Spira in Jönköping, returns to Gothenburg Opera to sing the role of Elsalill in Herr Arnes Penningar, and joins Kymi Sinfonietta for a programme of Wagner and Wesendonck.

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Tebogo Monnakgotlas Den försvunna, Kulturhuset Spira

Jönköping Sinfonietta, (May 2022)

The movements are also composed both for and in close collaboration with the soloist Julia Sporsén - a soprano who goes from clarity to clarity and who in parallel is an artist in residence here. As such, she has also had the opportunity, together with Kulturhuset Spira's artistic team, to explore how to deepen the classical concert format on stage.
… Sporsén is at the same time a brave and modern soprano. With her mobility and superb voice control, she breathed new life into an ancient repertoire. Under the heading "The girl in the forest", she brought together songs by Ture Rangström and music by the 150th anniversary Hugo Alfvén into an imaginatively choreographed "song ballet". With astonishment and some obsession, she approached nationally romantic music by two mildly German-friendly composers, safely passed to the world of fairy tales in John Bauer's country itself under the sympathetic guidance of Australian conductor Matthew Wood.

Johanna Paulsson, Dagens Nyheter

Gösta Nystroem Herr Arnes Penningar (Elsalill)

Gothenburg Opera (February 2022)

Among the singers, it is the foster sisters couple Julia Sporsén and Sofie Asplund who shine through; both brilliant.

Camilla Lundberg, SVT Kulturnyheterna

Soprano Julia Sporsén’s voice is both convincing and impressive, because the music with its varying whims seems difficult to sing, to say the least. Particularly strong is her aria in the beginning of the second act, when the dead foster sister reappears to force Elsalill to exact revenge for the murders and reveal the culprits.

Britt Nordberg, alba.nu

Sporsén convinces with elegiac intensity in her soprano.

Lennart Bromander, Aftonbladet

[Sporsén] shines like a storm lantern in the dark

Martin Nyström, Dagens Nyheter

At the center of the drama is the close relationship between the girl Elsalill and her foster sister, very impressively portrayed by the two sopranos Julia Sporsén and Sofie Asplund.

Magnus Haglund, Göteborgs-Posten

Julia Sporsén has impressed as both Isolde and Violetta, and here she makes her next big tragic role interesting with sincerity and depth.

Gunilla Brodrej, Expressen

There are absolutely wonderful singing contributions, not least from Julia Sporsén as Elsalill and Sofie Asplund as her (nameless) foster sister: two clear sopranos - one tougher, darker, more dangerous and one that is shimmering, spooky light.

Bo Löfvendahl, Svenska Dagbladet

Julia Sporsén as Elsalill, the only one who survives the atrocities of the Scottish mercenaries in Solberga vicarage, is well cut out for the role with her lyrically-dramatic soprano.

Sören Tranberg, Tidskriften Opera

Tebogo Monnakgotlas Den försvunna and Schubert Lieder, Jönköping Sinfonietta

Kulturhuset Spira (February 2022)

It is brilliant and moving, and Sporsén finds an exact expression in both singing and acting… "Erlkönig" will be a pure dramatic highlight this evening.

Richard Flyckt, Jönköpings-posten

Ravel's Sheherazade & Ariadne arias, Jönköping Sinfonietta

Kulturhuset Spira (November 2021)

Julia Sporsén as artist in residence is a stroke of luck. She is an absolutely brilliant soprano who is able to take charge of the music regardless of whether it is dramatic with Strauss or painfully beautiful and delicate with Ravel. The main piece of the evening, despite the short playing time, is of course the Monnakgotla / Karam collaboration. This time Julia Sporsén sings from a child's perspective. It is an incredibly beautiful text, both painful and hopeful.