Anna Justine Steiger is an American opera singer who has sung leading soprano and mezzo-soprano roles in British, European and North American opera houses. She has sung many recitals at festivals which have been broadcast live on the BBC, Radio France and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to name a few. In 2010, she was invited to participate in the Australian Chamber Music Festival. She is still active as a recitalist and opera singer.
Steiger trained with Noelle Barker at the Guildhall School of Music in London from 1977 to 1983 and then with Vera Rózsa at the National Opera Studio from 1985 to 1986. She won the Sir Peter Pears Award in 1982, the Richard Tauber Prize in 1984, and the John Christie Award in 1985.
Her professional debut in 1984 was as Dorabella in Opera 80’s production of Così fan tutte. In 1986 she sang the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Glyndebourne, and returned to sing in many productions there in roles such as Concepción in L’heure espagnole. With Glyndebourne Touring Opera, she sang the role of Sashka in the 1987 world premiere of Nigel Osborne’s The Electrification of the Soviet Union.
From 1988, Steiger performed at other opera houses in the UK, including Parsifal, Jenůfa and The Knot Garden at the Royal Opera House and The Makropulos Affair at English National Opera. Abroad, her roles have included Despina in Così fan tutte (Amsterdam, Stuttgart and Zurich), Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Seattle Opera, Stuttgart and Nancy), Governess in The Turn of the Screw (La Fenice), Jenny in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Los Angeles Opera), the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos (Opera Theatre of St. Louis), Concepción (New York City Opera and Geneva), Serpetta in La finta giardiniera (Frankfurt and Lausanne), and Damigella in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Salzburg Festival. She has sung many times with Nicolaus Harnoncourt and in 1991 recorded with him the role of Despina with the Concertgebouw Orchestra for the Teldec/Warner Classics label. Still active in Opera, in 2018 and 2019 Steiger will appear in Verdi’s La Traviata at the Capitole of Toulouse, and Rossini’s Le Comte Ory at the Opera de Rennes and the Opera de Rouen.