Soprano

Diana Damrau, born in Günzburg an der Donau in Germany, studied at the Musikhochschule Würzburg with Carmen Hanganu and in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig. Her first engagements took place at the Stadtheater Würzburg and the Nationaltheater Mannheim at Oper Frankfurt. In 2002, Ms. Damrau's international freelance career was launched and she was invited to sing at the most important theatres in Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg. Soon thereafter, the artist appeared in Vienna, Brussels, Washington and London and since 2002 at the Salzburg Festival. Ms. Damrau has sung under the direction of renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Riccardo Muti, Ivor Bolton, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez and Peter Schneider on the opera stage as well as the concert podium.

Diana Damrau's extensive repertoire ranges from the Italian and French fachs (Gilda/RIGOLETTO, Leila/LES PêCHEURS DE PERLES, Lakmé), to the full lyric roles of the German repertoire, and includes contemporary works as well (the Small Woman in the premiere of Cerha's DER RIESE VOM STEINFELD at the Wiener Staatsoper, HÉRODIADE FRAGEMENTE by Pintscher, "1984" by Maazel/world premiere 2005 at Royal Opera House Covent Garden London). As a highly sought-after interpreter of Mozart and Strauss roles, Ms. Damrau can be heard as Konstanze (Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna 2006), Queen of the Night (Munich, London, Salzburger Festspiele 2006), Zdenka (Munich), Sophie (Dresden, Munich, Vienna), Zerbinetta (Dresden, Vienna, London, Met New York 2005) and Aithra/DIE ÄGYPTISCHE HELENA ) Met New York 2007. In December 2004, the artist sang the title role of Salieri's L'EUROPA RICONOSCIUTA at the occasion of the reopening of La Scala under the direction of Riccardo Muti.

Future projects include among others DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL and LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at the Met, a new production RIGOLETTO at Semperoper Dresden, HÄNSEL UND GRETEL and ELISIR D'AMORE at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, new productions ARIADNE AUF NAXOS and SCHWEIGSAME FRAU at the Bayerische Staatsoper München, LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT at the San Francisco Opera as well as HAMLET at the Washington Opera. Ms. Damrau is also in great demand as a Lied singer and is a regular guest of the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg.