Soprano
Julia Kleiter specializes in Classical-era opera, often performing and recording little-known works. Her repertory extends back to the High Baroque and forward to the late 19th century, and she also often appears as a concert singer and in lieder recitals.
Kleiter was born May 5, 1980, in Limburg an der Lahn in southwestern Germany. In Limburg's fine medieval cathedral, she sang in the Mädchenkantorei, or girls' chorale, and then in cathedral's main choir. Hooked on the idea of a vocal career, she took singing classes at the Musikhochschule Hamburg and the Musikhochschule Köln with William Workman and Klesie Kelly, respectively. At first, she envisioned a career as a performer in concert works, but that changed after her successful debut in 2004 as Pamina in
Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, K. 620, at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. She became identified with that opera, singing Pamina repeatedly as well as the comic role of Papagena under conductor
Claudio Abbado.
Kleiter has also appeared in other well-known
Mozart roles, but her repertoire also extends to rarely performed works like Johann Christian Bach's Lucio Silla (1776) and
Schubert's Fierabras, D. 796, which she performed at the Salzburg Festival in 2014. She is equally comfortable working under historical-instrument conductors such as
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, for whom she sang the role of Serpetta in
Mozart's La finta giardiniera, K. 196, and modern orchestral figures such as
Franz Welser-Möst; for him, she played Zdenka in
Richard Strauss' Arabella. In the 2018-2019 season, for the first time,
Kleiter sang the role of the Countess Almaviva in
Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492, at the Royal Opera House in London.
Kleiter has also performed in her original specialty of concert music and given lieder recitals, and she has made recordings in both these fields. In 2018, she was heard with the
Bachchor and
Bachorchester Mainz in a recording of
Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, and two years later, she was featured on Volume 6 of the Hyperion label's cycle of
Liszt songs, with pianist
Julius Drake.