Jennifer Larmore

Jennifer Larmore's operatic début in France as Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito in 1986 marked the start of a brilliant international career in which the operas of Rossini, Bellini, Mozart and Handel have come to figure particularly prominently. As Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia she has appeared to great acclaim in Paris, Amsterdam, Bonn, Berlin, Bilbao and London. It was also this role that she chose for her Metropolitan Opera début in 1995. She was first heard at La Scala, Milan, in Rossini’s Le comte Ory, later returning for Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. She has appeared as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Paris, New York's Carnegie Hall, Lisbon, Geneva and Vaison-la-Romaine. She made her Salzburg Festival début in 1993 as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and has sung the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Amsterdam, Lisbon, New York  and Paris.

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 Rückert Lieder, which she has sung not only at the Vienna Musikverein with Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic but also at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Quote: In   the beginning, when you're doing auditions and basically feeling insecure, the last thing you need or want is for someone to throw discouragement in your face. I sang several competitions as a young singer, and although many judges and other people involved with these competitions told me they thought I was the best singer that evening, I still didn't win.

In addition, I was given some of the most amazing reasons by the judges. One told me that I was going to have a great career anyway, so I really didn't need the prize! Another told me that he was afraid to give me a prize because I was too pretty, and people would have thought I won because of my appearance. Again, right before I walked on to sing in a prestigious East Coast competition, one of the judges told me that I had no business being there because I was too young. It shook my confidence, but I still won third prize. I was told by a well-known opera director that I would never be able to make a career because I had a fast vibrato!