CLASSICAL | INTERVIEW
Nina Stemme: ‘Directors don’t mess with me’
She became one of the world’s leading sopranos by giving her all — so how does she cope with the trauma of murdering her family in Elektra at the Royal Opera House?
Wotan clan: Nina Stemme as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring cycle, in 2018
BILL COOPER
The Times
The woman in front of me is all Scandi competence and calm. From her elegantly streaked bob to her crisp shirt and bright silk scarf, she could be a diplomat or a fine-art dealer. It’s a remarkable transformation from the last time I saw her: eyes wild, streaked in blood and dirt, writhing on top of a corpse. Last winter she murdered a baby; this month she will be plotting to kill her mother. Welcome to the extreme world of Nina Stemme — opera’s greatest living dramatic soprano.
“In the beginning of my career I did get totally inside the characters,” she says. “It ate me from within. Then I learnt that it’s not about me. I’m not supposed to feel that way, I’m supposed
