Anne Sofie von Otter
What was the aria she sang?
shareMarietta's Lied by Erich Korngold, from his opera, Die tote Stadt.
Aria is written for a soprano and Ms. von Otter is a mezzo. They transposed the aria down so that it would fit Ms. von Otter's voice better. Interesting though, why they didn't go ahead and just choose a soprano to sing it. There are plenty that would have been great. This is no slight to Ms. von Otter, she's a great singer. Just a musing as to this decision by the director/music director, particularly since this is a movie about real classical music and not pop classical music where transpositions are the norm.
shareTranspositions aren't unknown in classical music, particularly for singers. In fact, the recording used in the movie is the final track from von Otter's DG recording "Rendezvous with Korngold", which was released back in 1999, long before the movie.