In the lounge beneath the Metropolitan Opera, Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen—towering in stature—is the picture of calm.
“My husband jokes I’m like a pressure cooker,” she says with a laugh, sitting perfectly upright on a sofa. (Standing, she’s an astonishing six-foot-two.) “I tend to save up emotions, positive or negative. But it can explode!”

Explosive is certainly one way to describe Davidsen’s voice, which has awed Met audiences since her 2019 debut there in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. The New York Times has since compared her soaring soprano to a rocket, and Angelina Jolie called her Tosca “transcendent.” Now, Davidsen is preparing to open as the title heroine in Tristan und Isolde, Wagner’s tale of doomed love between an Irish princess and a Cornish knight.

At 39, Davidsen is about as big a star as you can be in opera today—so much so that her first pregnancy last year made headlines. After her twin boys arrived in June, she took six months off to be with them and her husband, Ben, before returning to the stage in December (coincidentally, for a different production of Tristan in Barcelona). “I wish it had been longer,” she says of her maternity leave. “But then again, when is the right time to come back? It’s impossible to know.”

The Met is a long way from Stokke, the Norwegian hamlet where she grew up playing handball and singing in church. She didn’t come from a musical family and attended her first opera at 20. In university, at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, she studied voice, preferring Bach. (“I have not met anyone who doesn’t like Bach. Other composers you can argue about, but with Bach, you just can’t.”) It was in graduate school in Copenhagen that she finally turned her attention to opera, and after winning the prestigious Operalia competition in 2015, a few years into her professional career, she hasn’t looked back.

It’s clear that the Met, which has faced financial struggles for years, sees Davidsen as one of its most bankable performers. Instead of opening its 2026–27 season with a new contemporary work—as has been the tradition recently—the house will mount a production of Verdi’s Macbeth, starring Davidsen once again. She is also slated to star in a new Met staging of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle, the composer’s four-part masterpiece of Norse and Germanic legends, totaling 15 hours, over the next three seasons.

“I do hope that the Met will find a way to continue because I love being here, and I hope that with this opera, we’ve built something people want to see again, that it can be repeated,” she says of Tristan. (Experimental director Yuval Sharon, who once staged Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in a parking garage, makes his Met debut with this Tristan; Es Devlin—known for her work with Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, and Beyoncé—handled the set design.)

For all the glamour of Davidsen’s position, it’s the Nordic emphasis on hard work that has gotten her where she is. “There are no shortcuts for me to sing something like this,” she notes. (Tristan und Isolde runs nearly five hours.) “It’s a marathon. You can’t start too hard, because then you’ll have nothing left. The aria at the end—I need all of my colors for it.”

To blow off steam between rehearsals and caring for her babies, Davidsen has been using the elliptical, though she’d much rather be jogging. “After I gave birth, my whole pelvic floor changed, and at the moment I can’t run,” she says, frowning. She streams episodes of Bridgerton to make the workouts less dull: “You don’t have to focus—it just sort of goes in and goes out.”

For the younger audiences Davidsen and the Met are trying to attract, a five-hour opera is a haIt’s hard to convince someone with a 20-second attention span to commit to a five-hour performance. That’s a real challenge, Davidsen admits. (Timothée Chalamet’s recent casual remark that “no one cares about” ballet and opera anymore certainly didn’t help.)

Nevertheless, she is confident that her art form will endure. “It has already survived for hundreds of years. I don’t know exactly where it will be, but I do believe it will continue,” she says, her eyes lighting up. “I will do everything I can to keep it alive.”

Tristan und Isolde will be performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera from March 9 through April 4.

Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about Lise Davidsen and her role in Tristan und Isolde designed for both newcomers and seasoned opera fans

About Lise Davidsen Her Career

Who is Lise Davidsen
Lise Davidsen is a Norwegian dramatic soprano widely considered one of the most exciting and powerful voices in opera today She rose to international fame after winning major competitions in 2015

What kind of voice does she have
She possesses a dramatic soprano voice This means her voice is powerful rich and has a remarkable ability to soar over a large orchestra making it ideal for the most demanding roles in opera

Why is she such a big deal right now
Her combination of a onceinageneration voice compelling stage presence and intelligent musicianship has led major opera houses to cast her in their most prestigious productions

About Tristan und Isolde

What is Tristan und Isolde
Its a monumental nearly 5hour opera by Richard Wagner Its a story of forbidden love fate and transcendence and is considered one of the pinnacles of the operatic repertoire both for its music and vocal demands

Why is Isolde such an important role
The role of Isolde is one of the most challenging in all of opera It requires immense vocal stamina power across a wide range and the ability to convey deep emotion for the entire length of the opera Singing it successfully marks a soprano as a true star

Is this her first time singing Isolde
No she has performed the role in several major productions prior to this However each new production is a major event as audiences and critics are eager to hear how her interpretation of this iconic role continues to evolve

For Beginners New Listeners

Im new to opera Is Tristan und Isolde a good place to start
Its a challenging but rewarding starting point Its very long and the music is complex but the emotional story is clear You might want to listen to some highlights first or watch a documentary about it to prepare