Voice: | Soprano |
Nationality: | Japanese |
Year of Birth: | |
Year of Death: |
Mihoko Fujimura (Japanese: è—¤æ‘ å®Ÿç©‚å, Hepburn: Fujimura Mihoko, born 1966) is a Japanese operatic mezzo-soprano who made an international career based in Europe. She was recognized internationally after her 2002 debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Fricka in Wagner's Ring cycle. In concert, she performed in Verdi's Requiem and Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. In 2020, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera.
Fujimura was born in the Gifu Prefecture and studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts with Hiroko Kimura, and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Josef Loibl from 1992 to 1995, graduating with a Masters of Music degree. She was a member of the Oper Graz from 1995 to 2000, appearing in roles such as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Azucena in Il trovatore, the title role of Bizet's Carmen, and Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. From 1998, she worked also at the Bavarian State Opera. She sang as a guest at the Cologne Opera, Staatsoper Karlsruhe, Staatsoper Stuttgart from 2000, Oper Leipzig from 2001, and internationally at the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. In 2000, she first appeared at the Vienna State Opera, as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde.
She made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 2002, as Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen. She added the roles of Waltraute and Erda in the Ring there, also Brangäne, and Kundry in Parsifal in 2008. Her role repertoire includes Idamante in Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi roles Eboli in Don Carlos, Azucena in Il trovatore, and Amneris in Aida, and the title roles in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss and Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. She has been a regular guest at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 2020, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Mary in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Valery Gergiev.