Diana Damrau

Damrau was born in Günzburg. She was inspired to become an opera singer after watching Zeffirelli's 1983 film of La traviata.[1] She began her operatic studies with Carmen Hanganu at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. During her studies, she developed an edema on a vocal chord.[2][3] After consulting with several doctors, she decided to undergo an alternative therapy without surgery. The treatment lasted about one and a half years.[4] After graduating from music conservatory she worked in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig.

Damrau made her operatic debut in 1995 as Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg. In the next two years, she was engaged at the same theatre, featuring as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and then as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute, her debut in that role. Next, she performed with the Mannheim National Theatre and Oper Frankfurt for two years each. In 1999, she debuted at the Bavarian State Opera as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and then as the Queen of the Night at the Vienna State Opera in 2000. In 2001, she debuted at the Salzburg Festival, portraying the Naiad in Ariadne auf Naxos. She returned in later productions as the Queen of the Night and as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.[5][6]

Since 2002, she embarked a freelance career, and had frequent engagements with the Bavarian State Opera in roles such as Adele in Die Fledermaus, Marzelline in Fidelio, and the Queen of the Night. She returned to the Vienna State Opera in the role of Small Woman in the world premiere of Cehra's Der Riese vom Steinfeld.[7] In 2003, she made her debut at the Royal Opera, London, appearing in David McVicar's new production of The Magic Flute,[8] and returned in two consecutive seasons as Fiakermilli in Arabella, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the world premiere of Maazel's 1984.[9][10][11] She took on the role of Konstanze in Die Entführung for the first time in October at the Opera Frankfurt, and repeated the role the next year at the Salzburg Festival. In 2004, she sang the role of Zdenka in Arabella for the first time and followed by Konstanze at the Bavarian State Opera.[12] In December she was invited to sing the title role in Salieri's Europa riconosciuta, conducted by Riccardo Muti, for the reopening of La Scala in Milan.[13] In 2005, she portrayed Gilda in the premiere of Doris Dörrie's controversial production of Rigoletto,[14] and later debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the role of Zerbinetta.[15]

In 2006, she debuted as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, performing the role at La Scala and the Vienna State Opera.[16] In the same year at the Salzburg Festival, she was engaged as the Queen of the Night in the premiere of Pierre Audi's production of The Magic Flute, and as Fauno in Mozart's Ascanio in Alba.[17][18] She made Metropolitan Opera history in the 2007/08 season by appearing as both Pamina and the Queen of the Night in different performances of the same run, after which she retired from playing the Queen,[19] a role that she had sung in more than 15 productions. In 2009, she debuted in the role of Marie in La fille du régiment at the San Francisco Opera, and as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.[20][21] Another notable engagement was her portrayal of all four heroines in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in a new production at the Bavarian State Opera in October 2011.[22] Other coloratura roles in her repertoire include Elvira in I puritani and Aminta in Il re pastore. She also performs roles in the lyric soprano repertoire, including the title role in Manon, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel.

Damrau has furthered her exploration of the bel canto repertoire with highlights including new productions of Rossini's comic opera Le comte Ory at the Metropolitan Opera[23] and the title role in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix at the Liceu.[24] She has since returned to the Metropolitan Opera as both Adina in L'elisir d'amore and Rosina in The Barber of Seville and brought her portrayal in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor to Berlin and Vienna. Following the birth of her second child in autumn 2012, Damrau returned to the stage with a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera in February 2013; this was followed by her role debut in the title role of Verdi's La traviata in the same house. In October 2013, she sang in the world premiere of Iain Bell's A Harlot's Progress at the Theater an der Wien.[25] In March 2014 she sang in La sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera. She debuted in the role of Countess d'Almaviva in the new production of The Marriage of Figaro at La Scala, which premiered on 26 October 2016.[26]

She took up the title role in Maria Stuarda at the Zürich Opera House in April 2018.[27] In 2019 she debuted as Ophélie in Hamlet in concert performances at the Liceu and later at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.[28][29]

As well as performing in operas, Damrau is a regular on the concert stage. She performed alongside Plácido Domingo at the concert program "3 Orchester und Stars" in Munich to mark the opening of the 2006 FIFA World Cup.[30] She has performed lieder at Vienna's Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, La Scala, the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, the Kissinger Sommer and both the Munich and Salzburg Festivals, especially with Xavier de Maistre as her accompanist. Her concert repertoire includes Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, Requiem and Exsultate, jubilate as well as Handel's Messiah. She has performed with conductors as James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Leonard Slatkin, Pierre Boulez, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Jesús López Cobos.

Damrau married French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé in May 2010.[31] They have two sons, Alexander and Colyn, born respectively in October 2010 and October 2012.[32][33]

• La Scala: Europa riconosciuta* (Europa), The Marriage of Figaro (Susanna), La traviata* (Violetta), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia)
• Metropolitan Opera: La sonnambula (Amina), La traviata (Violetta), The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night and Pamina), Ariadne auf Naxos (Zerbinetta), Il barbiere di Siviglia* (Rosina), Die ägyptische Helena* (Aithra), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Konstanze), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia), Rigoletto* (Gilda), La fille du régiment (Marie), Le comte Ory* (Adèle), L'elisir d'amore (Adina), Manon (Manon), Les pêcheurs de perles (Leila), Roméo et Juliette (Juliette)
• The Royal Opera: The Magic Flute* (Queen of the Night), Arabella* (Fiakermilli), Ariadne auf Naxos (Zerbinetta), 1984* (Gym Instructor / Drunken Woman), Hänsel und Gretel* (Gretel), L'elisir d'amore (Adina), La traviata* (Violetta)
• Vienna State Opera: Die Fledermaus (Adele), Rigoletto (Gilda), Ariadne auf Naxos (Zerbinetta), Der Riese vom Steinfeld* by Cerha (Small Woman), The Marriage of Figaro (Susanna), Die Entführung aus dem Serail* (Konstanze), The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), Manon (Manon), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lucia)
• Salzburg Festival: Die Entführung aus dem Serail* (Blondchen / Konstanze), Ascanio in Alba* (Fauno), The Magic Flute* (Queen of the Night), The Marriage of Figaro (Susanna)
• Bavarian State Opera, Munich: Les contes d'Hoffmann* (Olympia/Antonia/Giulietta/Stella), Die schweigsame Frau* (Aminta), The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night), Die Entführung aus dem Serail* (Konstanze), Arabella (Zdenka), Ariadne auf Naxos*(Zerbinetta), Rigoletto* (Gilda), The Marriage of Figaro (Susanna), Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie), Fidelio (Marzelline), Der Freischütz (Ännchen), Die Fledermaus (Adele), Lucia di Lammermoor* (Lucia)

NB: * indicates a new production of the piece

• 1999: Prizewinner at the 7th International Mozart Competition, Salzburg
• 1999: Voted "Young Singer of the Year" in a critics' survey in the magazine Opernwelt
• 2004: Recipient of the "Star of the Year" by the Munich Abendzeitung
• 2005: Recipient of the "Rose of the Year" by the Munich Tageszeitung (tz)
• 2006: Named "Bavarian of the Year" by the Bayerischer Rundfunk
• 2007: Awarded the EON prize for culture
• 2007: Named Bavarian Kammersängerin[34]
• 2007: Featured on the cover of both March 2007 edition of Opera News and May 2007 edition of Opera
• 2008: Named "Singer of the Year 2008" by the magazine Opernwelt, appearing on the cover of the magazine's 2008 yearbook
• 2008: Awarded the German Record Critics' Award for her album Arie di Bravura
• 2010: Appointed the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art[35] – the highest recognition awarded by the State of Bavaria for artistic merit, awarded on 17 November 2011[36]
• 2010: Awarded the Würzburg Cultural Prize[37]
• 2011: Awarded the Echo Klassik Award for her album Poesie
• 2011: Awarded "Musical Ambassador of the Günzburg district" (Musikalische Botschafterin des Landkreises Günzburg)[38]
• 2014: Named "Female Singer of the Year" in the International Opera Awards 2014.[39]
• 2014: Awarded the Klassik ohne Grenzen prize for her album Forever of the Echo Klassik award[40]
• 2016: Appointed the Bavarian Order of Merit,[41] awarded on 12 July 2017[42]
• 2018: Awarded "Female Singer of the Year" for her Meyerbeer album of the Opus Klassik award[43]
• 2020: asteroid 33034 Dianadamrau, discovered by the ODAS team in 1997, was named in her honor.[44] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 9 January 2020 (M.P.C. 120069).[45]

Early recordings include Verdi's canzoni, Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Schumann's Myrthen, Op. 25, with the Telos label and live recordings of her summer 2005 Liederabend at the Salzburg Festival and her summer 2006 Liederabend at the Schubertiade are released on the Orfeo label.

Damrau also appears on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's release of Mozart's Zaide in the title role, and performs in the trio finale from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier alongside Adrianne Pieczonka on Elīna Garanča's first solo release with Deutsche Grammophon.

Since 2007 Damrau has had an exclusive recording contract with EMI/Virgin.

• Arie di Bravura, her first release (2007) was a recital of Mozart, Righini and Salieri arias with Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, conducted by Jérémie Rhorer.
• Donna: Opera and Concert Arias by Mozart (November 2008) is a collection of Mozart opera and concert arias and is a return collaboration with Rhorer and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie.
• Coloraturas (November 2009) is a collection of arias with which the soprano is most closely associated and features the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Dan Ettinger.
• Poesie: Richard Strauss Lieder (January 2011) is a collection of Richard Strauss' orchestral songs recorded with the Munich Philharmonic under the baton of Christian Thielemann.
• Liszt Lieder (October 2011) is a collection of classical songs by Liszt, accompanied by pianist Helmut Deutsch.
• Forever (2013) is a collection of operetta and musical theatre numbers recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by David Charles Abell.
• Fiamma del belcanto (2015) is a collection of belcanto compositions by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Leoncavallo, recorded with the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino and conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
• Meyerbeer: Grand Opera (2017) is a recording of pieces by Giacomo Meyerbeer, performed with the Lyon National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume.
• Hugo Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch (2019) with Jonas Kaufmann, accompanied by Helmut Deutsch

DVDs are available of her performances in the following operas:

• Rossini's Le comte Ory (Metropolitan Opera)
• Verdi's Rigoletto (Semperoper Dresden, Metropolitan Opera)
• Strauss's Rosenkavalier (Baden Baden)
• Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (Covent Garden)
• Mozart's The Magic Flute (Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival)
• Mozart's Ascanio in Alba (Salzburg Festival)
• Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Oper Frankfurt)
• Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Liceu)
• Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (La Scala)
• Lorin Maazel's 1984 (Covent Garden)

Streaming videos are available at Met Opera on Demand of her performances in the following operas:

• Rossini's Le comte Ory (9 April 2011)
• Verdi's Rigoletto (16 February 2013)
• Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles (16 January 2016)
• Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (21 January, 2017)
• Verdi's La traviata (15 December 2018)

Roles which have been fully performed on stage or in studio.[46]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Diana Damrau.

• Official website
• Diana Damrau at IMDb
• Diana Damrau at Bavarian State Opera
• Diana Damrau at Warner Classics
• Diana Damrau: schedule at Operabase