Anne Sofie von Otter: When a Swede goes south

Anne Sofie von Otter is one of the world's greatest mezzo-sopranos, renowned for her pure, lyrical voice and her Nordic cool. An unlikely choice, then, to play the earthy and passionate Carmen at Glyndbourne? Not at all, she tells Ruth Padel ? she's going to smoulder

Glyndbourne's Carmen, which opens on Thursday, will be sumptuously costumed, with loads of jet and lace and real bullfighters' "suits of lights" tailored in Madrid by matador costumiers. But its heroine will not be your run-of-the-mill dark- flashing Spanish beauty. Anne Sofie von Otter was born in Stockholm. Her father was a diplomat. She studied at London's Guildhall, specialises in lieder recitals, anything French, baroque opera, and "trouser roles" like Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro: male characters sung by women straight up-and-down enough to make a credible young man. Her voice has been described as nordic silver: cool, pure, clear. She is tall, loves Abba, vibrates with technical poise and musical intelligence. She is also 46 and blonde as a banana. Clichés like "Swedish ice queen" have been tossed at her.

I interviewed Von Otter in her third week of rehearsals on a sunny lawn in the Glyndebourne gardens. Instead of men in penguin suits with Harrods hampers, working musicians in T-shirts were sunbathing on the grass, Carmen's producer, the Scottish wunderkind David McVicar, stripped to his waist, was talking on the mobile by the ha-ha, and one of the world's top mezzo-sopranos was eating yogurt in purple trousers and bare feet.

Von Otter is renowned for her recherché recital choices and musical versatility. Her recordings run from Beethoven to Mahler, Schubert to a recent album with Elvis Costello of torch songs, jazz, and seldom-covered material by Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and Tom Waits. Has she sung Carmen before?

"Concert performances. This is the first time with dialogue. We tried dialogue in concert but it didn't work. This time, I'm really exploring it. I relish the chance to do the role at this point in my life."

The musical world is holding its breath to know how she sees Carmen. Well?

"She's the outsider. She's very strong now, but not when she was young. She comes from the underworld: she was badly knocked around and she'll never trust anyone. She's a mocking person: she makes people laugh by being outrageous. David has given us the basis of how he understands her. She doesn't ever really fall in love. If she does, it's with Escamillo. She's hot-blooded, lots of violence, anger, and fun."

But Carmen waits around for Don José. She says "Oui" when he asks, "If I loved you, would you love me?"

"Yes – she's fascinated by the way he responds to her. But that 'Oui' is of the moment. She's in prison. She whispers it as a come on, 'Get me out of here'. At that moment, he's the guy who can set her free."

Has she worked with David before?

"No. People say wonderful things about him, and they're right – he's very committed, energetic, impatient in a way that is good. You don't just sit around waiting for something to happen. Also, he's had an actor's training, he can show you what he wants."

What about her famously pure cool tone? Does it infuriate her when critics typecast her sound like that?

"It used to. That's the impression, it's part of how I look. I am cool. I'm not only cool but it's how I am, I can't be any other way. But I'm also other things. In Carmen, I'm going to smoulder."

What about vocal health? She's been known to take risks with that spun-silver voice of hers.

"The way the role's written, you can speak a lot of it, mix the voice without belting it out. You can't do that with a Mozart role when you have to support the voice the whole time. Carmen is Opera Comique. It was written for a small house, not for singers with heroic voices. The role sits in the lower part of the voice; it doesn't go high."

What's after Carmen?

"Paris: Handel's Julius Caesar with Marc Minkovsky. I've worked a lot with him. He's a wonderful conductor, really loves music. That's very alive in everything he does."

She takes her time about her words; she really thinks about them. She prefers, doesn't she, to sing with period instruments when singing Baroque music?

"I just like the sound of those instruments," she says. "Ithas more structure. When I started I was 20, and got into the baroque scene through one of the best choirs in Stockholm, the Bach Choir, which used period instruments. I was in an a cappella quartet, we did mostly old music – Byrd, Monteverdi. I also like the energy of period conductors. Then things moved on. Take what's happening right here now [Iphigénie was playing that night]. The Orchestra of the Enlightenment at Glyndebourne! Thirty years ago, the sound they make would have been off. Now we take it for granted."

And after the Handel?

"Lots of concerts. Then in December something new: a major European tour of Christmas music; very mixed, with and without microphone."

Her two boys, 11 and 13, were arriving from Stockholm that afternoon to face five weeks without computers in the English summer. How does she fit her family into her schedule?

She can't ever do a long run, she says, but that is fine with her.

"I read an interview with an actor once, who said what matters is the rehearsals. I agree. That's what's electric. Learning: working together to create something as we're doing now; getting to understand the piece, say, 'Yes, this is how it should feel'. Going on night after night, I'd feel cramped. I try to do things in Stockholm or space out performances – then I can fly back and be with the boys. But it's hard. For instance, in the Metropolitan in New York you have to be there two days before you're on."

She can wait till the kids are older?

"But then I'll also be older. I can't go on to do the big mean-bitch roles as Christa Ludwig went on to do, like Elektra. I'd have loved to. But mine will always be a lyric voice."

Is it changing, with age?

"Softening a bit," she says. "The vibrato."

People say she's very flexible, can tackle anything.

"Sometimes it's a question of imitating, rather than being the thing. But Bizet is French – I'll do anything French. No Verdi."

What about the elitism, the peculiar costliness of opera; the feeling that all the work and thought she and other musicians put in, is often not perceived by many people who come here?

We look around the manicured grounds. Some members of the Iphigénie audience in evening dress are already creeping into the grounds to bag the best picnic places.

"People don't dress up for the opera in Stockholm, but the grand building is there: a great big place with a lot of gold in it. If you've never been in that kind of building before, you do feel intimidated, and feel opera is another world. I don't know where I stand on that. But the other type, the hyper-critical, the ones who have been everywhere and heard every recording, are also part of the audience. When I go, I'm one myself."

'Carmen' opens at Glyndebourne on Thursday (01273 813813; www.glynde-bourne.com). A live performance will be broadcast by BBC2 on 17 Aug and also relayed on a big screen at Somerset House, London WC2 (For details of free tickets call 0207-845 4670)