BARBARA BONNEY is widely recognized as a superlative recital and concert artist and as one of the great Mozart singers of her generation. She has been praised for her radiant tone and the engaging warmth of her personality, as well as for her stylistic versatility in a broad repertoire that ranges from the Baroque to 20th-century music.

Among her signature roles, her interpretations of Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier with the Vienna Staatsoper under Carlos Kleiber, and with the Royal Opera led by Sir Georg Solti, have both been released on video, as have her performances in Falstaff and Ariadne auf Naxos with the Metropolitan Opera.

Bonney's discography includes sacred music of Bach, Haydn, and Mozart and Schubert. Complete opera recordings include Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Die Fledermaus, and Fidelio led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Hansel und Gretel conducted by Jeffrey Tate, and The Merry Widow with John Eliot Gardiner.

Born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1956, Bonney began piano studies at age five and took up the cello three years later. After two years as a music and German major at the University of New Hampshire, she decided to spend her junior year abroad at the University of Salzburg to perfect her German studies. She subsequently secured a repertory position with the Darmstadt City Opera in Germany; following her debut as Anna in Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor in 1979, she appeared in almost every production with that company during the next four years, singing 40 roles.