Marianne Beate Kielland is established as one of the foremost singers of Europe and is the only Norwegian singer to have received a U.S. Grammy nomination in the category Best Vocal Classical Album. The versatile mezzo-soprano started her international career as an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Hannover, and since then she has been working frequently with leading orchestras, ensembles and opera houses, enjoying a vast repertoire spanning from early 17th-century works through to Classical, Romantic and the contemporary eras.
In the 2022–23 season, she performs the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at New National Theatre in Tokyo with Rinaldo Alessandrini. Among her concert highlights are Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Bach Collegium Japan and Masato Suzuki in Saitama and Tokyo, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Ottavio Dantone, Mozart’s C Minor Mass in Salzburg with Jordi Savall, and concerts with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest led by Aapo Häkkinen and with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and NDR Orchester Hannover led by Andrew Manze.
Last season’s opera highlights include Monteverdi’s L'Orfeo (Speranza/Proserpina) at Opéra Comique Paris and a production of Fux’s La corona d’Arianna with Alfredo Bernardini for the Graz festival. On the concert stage, she sang Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo with the Freiburger Barockorchester and René Jacobs, Mozart’s Requiem with Jordi Savall and his orchestra, Haydn’s Stabat Mater with Andrew Manze and the Mozarteum Orchestra at the Salzburger Festspiele, Handel’s Messiah with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and Andrew Manze, Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben with Anima Eterna and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with South Jutland Symphony Orchestra. She also appeared at the inauguration festival of Haydneum Budapest under the baton of Vashegyi György and at the Handel Festival Moscow.
She has performed with major orchestras and ensembles including Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker, as well as with period ensembles such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, Gli Angeli Genève, Les Talens Lyriques, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, RIAS Kammerchor and Swedish Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with distinguished conductors such as Fabio Biondi, Herbert Blomstedt, Rune Bergmann, Michel Corboz, Thomas Dausgaard, John Fiore, Philippe Herreweghe, Manfred Honeck, Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski, Vasily Petrenko, Daniel Reuss, André de Ridder, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Jordi Savall, Thomas Søndergård and Robin Ticciati.
Kielland is in great demand for baroque opera roles, such as Dido in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, Merope in Vivaldi's Oracolo in Messenia (an extensive tour with Europa Galante), Messaggiera and Proserpina in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Fernando in Attilio Ariosti’s La fede nei tradimenti, Apollo in Handel's Terpsichore, Ercole in Caldara’s Il più bel nome, Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Aronne in Francesco Nicolò Fago’s Il faraone sommerso. She has also performed Fricka in Das Rheingold and, in 2023, she performs Fricka in Die Walküre. She looks forward to adding roles such as Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) and Waltraute (Götterdämmerung) to her repertoire.
Kielland has made more than 60 CD recordings of oratorios, operas, cantatas and songs by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Caldara, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Schumann, Mahler, Mussorgsky, Martin, Chausson, Korngold, von Suppé, Schönberg, Webern, Berg and Sigurd Islandsmoen.
She regularly performs song recitals with pianist Nils Anders Mortensen; the duo performed at the Philharmonie in Cologne and at the Musée d’Orsay in 2022, in addition to several concerts in Norway. They have also appeared in Estonia, Russia and Finland. Furthermore, she has collaborated with pianists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Pascal Roge, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Lise de la Salle and Jos van Immerseel.