Soprano DIANA DAMRAU has been performing on the world’s leading opera and concert stages for more than two decades. Her vast repertoire spans title roles for lyric and coloratura soprano in Anna Bolena, I Masnadieri, Capriccio, Roméo et Juliette, Lucia di Lammermoor, Manon and La Traviata as well as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, repeatedly performed at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Opera House Zurich, the Bavarian State Opera, the Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris , the Salzburg Festival, etc. , and in December 2023 she will make her debut as Rosalinde in The Bat at the Bavarian State Opera.
Her signature roles have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, been broadcast in HD to cinemas globally, and here she made seven role debuts since her own debut there as Zerbinetta in 2005 in Ariadne auf Naxos. Highlights have included new productions of Rigoletto (Gilda), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Le Comte Ory (Adèle) and Les pêcheurs des perles (Leïla), as well as title roles in La Traviata, Manon, La Sonnambula, La Fille du Régiment and Roméo et Juliette. She was also the first singer in Metropolitan Opera history to perform the roles of Pamina and Queen of the Night in different performances of the same run of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
The soprano has also performed contemporary works for the opera stage in roles written especially for her, most notably as the title role in Iain Bell’s operatic adaptation of Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress, based on William Hogarth’s cycle of paintings of the same title (Theater an der Wien, 2013) and as Drunken Woman/Gym Instructress in Lorin Maazel’s 1984 (Royal Opera House, 2005).
Diana Damrau has established herself as one of today’s most sought-after interpreters of song, regularly performing at most worldwide renowned venues. She enjoys a close artistic partnership with pianist Helmut Deutsch, harpist Xavier de Maistre and Sir Antonio Pappano.
Recording exclusively for Warner / Erato, Diana Damrau made her recording debut with Arie di Bravura – a collection of Mozart and Salieri arias. Subsequent solo releases were awarded the ECHO and the OPUS Klassik prize amongst others. She performed Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder at Carnegie Hall with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, and the recording was released in 2020. Furthermore, Damrau features on various complete opera recordings on both CD and DVD.
Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, Diana Damrau has held residencies in major cities in Europe such as the Barbican Centre in London, toured extensively in South America and Asia and performed the New Year’s Eve concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko. After having performed Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in the most renowned concert halls in Europe alongside tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch, the artists toured again in March and April of 2022 with love songs by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
In the 2023/24 season, Diana Damrau will give recitals with Helmut Deutsch at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Bozar in Brussels and Carnegie Hall in New York. Her new album of arias and duets from the operetta repertoire with Jonas Kaufmann will be released in January 2024, and she will tour Europe with this programme in April and May. She is also planning a tour of South America, with concerts at the prestigious Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Diana Damrau is Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera (2007) and holder of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (2010). She is a recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2021). She has also been selected Singer of the Year (Opernwelt, International Opera Award London, Opera News, Gramophone Editor’s Choice) and since 2020 an asteroid bears her name.