Soprano Lise Davidsen, whose voice has both dramatic and lyric aspects, emerged as an opera star in the 2010s. She has specialized in roles by Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Davidsen was born in Stokke, Norway, on February 8, 1987. The beginnings of her interest in performing came relatively late; she was 15 when she took up singing and playing the guitar. Davidsen enrolled at the Grieg Academy of Music in Bergen, studying with Bettina Smith and Hilde Haraldsen Sveen, graduating in 2010. Her first major public appearances came in concerts by the Norwegian Soloists' Choir. Davidsen moved on to the Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she was steered toward opera by teacher Susanna Eken. Her operatic debut performances came during the 2012-2013 season, in several roles at the Royal Danish Opera. After earning her master's in 2014, Davidsen made rapid progress. She won several Danish prizes, which in turn led to fellowship support, and in 2015 she won the Operalia first prize and audience prize in London. That was followed by several more major prizes, including a 2018 nod from Gramophone magazine as Young Artist of the Year. Davidsen has lived up to the promise implied by these competition wins. In 2017, she made her debut at Glyndebourne Opera House as Ariadne in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and also made prestigious debuts at the BBC Proms and Wigmore Hall. Davidsen has appeared at the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, and in 2017-2018 she was artist-in-residence with the Bergen Philharmonic. Davidsen recorded songs by composer John Frandsen for the Dacapo label in 2015 and joined the Norwegian Soloists' Choir on the BIS album As Dreams a year later. In 2019, she was signed to an exclusive contract by Decca and released her solo debut, featuring songs and operatic selections by Strauss and Wagner. ~ James Manheim, Rovi