Diana Damrau

Diana Damrau (; born 31 May 1971) is a German soprano. She has been successful in coloratura soprano roles, especially admired as the Queen of the Night in "The Magic Flute" and Zerbinetta in "Ariadne auf Naxos". She has gradually proceeded into 19th-century Italian bel canto repertoire, singing roles such as Violetta in "La traviata" and the title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor". Damrau is also known as a lieder singer.
Early life.
Damrau was born in Günzburg. She was inspired to become an opera singer after watching Zeffirelli's 1983 film of "La traviata". She began her operatic studies with at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. During her studies, she developed an edema on a vocal chord. After consulting with several doctors, she decided to undergo an alternative therapy without surgery. The treatment lasted about one and a half years. After graduating from music conservatory she worked in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig.
Career.
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 made her Bavarian State Opera debut with Zerbinetta in "Ariadne auf Naxos", and then her Vienna State Opera debut with the Queen of the Night in 2000. In 2001, she made her Salzburg Festival debut, 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".
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". In 2003, she made her Royal Opera, London debut, appearing in David McVicar's new production of "The Magic Flute", and returned in two consecutive seasons in "Arabella" (Fiakermilli), "Ariadne auf Naxos" (Zerbinetta), and the world premiere of Maazel's "1984". 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. 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. In 2005, she portrayed Gilda in the premiere of Doris Dörrie's controversial production of "Rigoletto", and later made her Metropolitan Opera debut in New York City in the role of Zerbinetta.
In February 2006, Damrau debuted as Susanna in "The Marriage of Figaro" at La Scala. She then repeated Susanna at the Vienna State Opera, and then premiered in a new "Die Entführung", co-production with the Burgtheater. 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". 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, 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. In January 2011, she debuted in the role of Elvira in "I puritani" in Geneva. She portrayed all four heroines in Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" in a new production at the Bavarian State Opera premiered in October 2011. 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 and the title role in Donizetti's "Linda di Chamounix" at the Liceu. 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. 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.
She took up the title role in "Maria Stuarda" at the Zürich Opera House in April 2018. In 2019 she debuted as Ophélie in "Hamlet" in concert performances at the Liceu and later at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
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. 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.
Personal life.
Damrau married French bass-baritone Nicolas Testé in May 2010. They have two sons, Alexander and Colyn, born respectively in October 2010 and October 2012.
Key performances.
NB: * indicates a new production of the piece
Discography.
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.
Videography.
DVDs are available of her performances in the following operas:
Streaming videos are available at Met Opera on Demand of her performances in the following operas:
Opera roles.
Roles which have been fully performed on stage or in studio.