Nancy Gustafson's career covers some of the most challenging roles in the lyric-dramatic repertoire and she appears regularly in all the major houses.
Her engagements in America have included the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera; Houston as well as Lyric Opera of Chicago. In Europe she has had notable successes in Vienna and Munich, at La Scala, Milan, at the London Covent Garden, appeared in Hamburg, Geneva, Rome, Turin, Berlin, and at the Bastille Opera in Paris.
Nancy Gustafson is especially well known for her highly rated appearances in the operas of Janacek, and is an acclaimed exponent of the role of Katya Kabanova. Since her debut in the part at Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Andrew Davis she has also sung it in Vienna and at the Bastille, and she sang a much acclaimed Jenufa at Covent Garden as well as at the Paris Châtelet under the baton of Simon Rattle and has returned to Glyndebourne for Lisa/QUEEN OF SPADES. Amongst her other roles are Violetta/TRAVIATA, Donna Elvira/DON GIOVANNI, SUSANNAH of Floyd, Alice Ford/FALSTAFF, Musetta/BOHEME, Salome/HÉRODIADE, Nedda/PAGLIACCI, Ellen Orford/PETER GRIMES, Irene/RIENZI, Composer/ARIADNE, ARABELLA, Antonia/TALES OF HOFFMANN, Marguerite/FAUST, Agathe/ FREISCHÜTZ, RUSALKA, ROMEO ET JULIETTE and the title-role of DAPHNE.
Miss Gustafson sung IDOMENEO in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis; Strauss' FOUR LAST SONGS and Beethoven SYMPHONY No. 9 under Christian Thielemann.
Her recordings include RHEINGOLD with Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi (Decca), Mahler SYMPHONY No. 2 with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta, LA BOHÈME under Kent Nagano (both for Teldec), a recording of THE CZAREVITCH, THE LAND OF SMILES for Telarc and a live recording of HÉRODIADE with Vienna State Opera under Marcello Viotti opposite Placido Domingo.
Engagements in the last seasons included MEISTERSINGER in Munich, Laurie/THE TENDER LAND with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin at the Barbican Hall, London, KATYA KABANOVA for the Royal Opera, Ellen Orford in Los Angeles and Frankfurt, MERRY WIDOW and RIENZI in Vienna and at the Liceu, Barcelona. Amongst the appearances in the 2001/02 season were a new FALSTAFF in San Francisco followed by FLEDERMAUS in Vienna, PETER GRIMES and MEISTERSINGER in Frankfurt. In 2002/03 she added Marschallin/ROSENKAVALIER as well as ARIADNE to her repertoire, was much acclaimed as Anita/JONNY SPIELT AUF in Vienna, as Gutrune/GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG under Zubin Mehta in Munich and as Ada/DIE FEEN at Dresden Music Festival. The world premiere of NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA opposite Placido Domingo in Los Angeles and a concert performance of Rudi Stephan's DIE ERSTEN MENSCHEN in Paris with Radio France followed. Most recently, she sang PIQUE DAME and Madame Lidoine/LES DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES in Hamburg, Arabella in London, the revival of JONNY SPIELT AUF in Vienna, and Chrysothemis in a concert performance of ELEKTRA in the Philharmonie Berlin.
Future projects include ELEKTRA and FLEDERMAUS in Tokyo, DIE SIEBEN TODSÜNDEN in Paris and Vienna, PETER GRIMES in Vienna, the world premiere of Lorin Maazel's opera "1984" in London, FLORENCIA in Seattle, I PAGLIACCI in Berlin as well as numerous concerts in Europe.
