Diana Damrau

Diana Damrau ( born May 31, 1971 in Günzburg ) is a German soprano with a focus as Mozart, Mahler and Straussinterpretin.

Biography and artistic work

Diana Damrau grew up in Günzburg. Very early on she was enthusiastic about classical music. The Zeffirelli film La Traviata with Teresa Stratas awakened in her a desire to become an opera singer. A first appearance was in 1986 in the cinema hall Danube light games Offingen with excerpts from My Fair Lady. Discovered and teaches Diana Damrau was by the Romanian opera singer Carmen Hanganu. After graduating from the High School Dossenberger Diana Damrau Günzburg studied singing with Carmen Hanganu at the University of Music Würzburg. They also visited Salzburg in master classes with Hanna Ludwig and Edith Mathis. In 1995, she graduated with honors.

She made her stage debut Diana Damrau as Eliza ( My Fair Lady) at the Theatre of Würzburg. Other roles: Annie ( Der Freischütz ), Gretel ( Hansel and Gretel ), Marie ( Tsar and Carpenter ), Adele ( Die Fledermaus ), Valenciennes ( The Merry Widow ), pretzel seller ( the nose) and Alzima ( Cublai, gran Kan de ' tartari ).

At the National Theatre Mannheim and Oper Frankfurt Diana Damrau sang Gilda ( Rigoletto ), Oscar ( A Masked Ball), Zerbinetta ( Ariadne auf Naxos), Olympia ( The Tales of Hoffmann ) and the Queen of the Night ( Die Zauberflöte). With the queen of the night she performed well at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Staatstheater Hannover, at the State Theatre in Darmstadt and at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken.

Diana Damrau has also, among others, Konstanze ( The Abduction from the Seraglio), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro ), Norina ( Don Pasquale ), Adina (L' elisir d' amore ), Rosina ( Il Barbiere di Siviglia ), Sophie ( The Rosenkavalier ), Zdenka ( Arabella ) and Aethra ( The Egyptian Helen ) in the repertoire. It ranges from Italian and French on high lyric roles to contemporary composers such as Friedrich Cerha. In addition to the Queen of the Night Zerbinetta is one of their favorite games.

Since 2002, Diana Damrau has worked freelance. In Munich, London, and at the Salzburg Festival, she sang the Queen of the Night. She has performed in opera houses in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Milan and New York. Her USA debut in 2002 with Leonard Slatkin at Washington's Kennedy Center. Attention was paid to her appearance as Europe (L' Europe riconosciuta ) for the reopening of La Scala in Milan in 2004. At the Metropolitan Opera Diana Damrau sang in 2007 in a series of performances of The Magic Flute both Queen of the Night and Pamina, in October 2008, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, in February 2010, Marie in La fille du régiment. In the season 2011/2012 she sang at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in Jacques Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann, the Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta and Stella. Her partner was Rolando Villazón.

Damrau is also active as a lieder and oratorio singer. Her concert repertoire includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Henri Duparc, Georg Friedrich Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Samuel Barber, Gabriel Faure and Alexander von Zemlinsky. It is accompanied, among others, Helmut German, Stephan Matthias Lademann, Gerold Huber and Julius Drake.

Damrau appeared at national and international concert halls, including Stuttgart, Munich, Berlin, Ingolstadt, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hanover, Hamburg, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Calgary and New York. She is a regular guest at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Kissinger Sommer, the Salzburg Festival and numerous other prestigious festivals. Again and again she also returns to her birthplace back, so in July 2007 with the "Italian Night " on the Günzburger Palace Square with the tenor César Gutiérrez, the Augustana Symphony under the baton of Wolfgang Reß.

A highlight of her career was the open-air concert on the occasion of the Football World Cup in the summer of 2006 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich with Plácido Domingo. Together with the Argentine baritone Ivàn Paley Diana Damrau has an extensive Duo repertoire of songs, for example, by Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler, constructed with which the two singers concerts since 2002.

Several CDs, videos, radio and television appearances at BR, WDR, HR, ORF and the BBC round out the artistic activity of the singer. For their CD Zaide she was awarded the Le Timbre de Platine.

In May 2010, Diana Damrau married the bass-baritone Nicolas Testé; she became the mother of a son in October 2010. On October 7, 2012 their second son was born Colyn.

For Diana Damrau in the title role of the composer Iain Bell wrote the opera A Harlot 's Progress ( libretto: Peter Ackroyd after the cycle A Harlot 's Progress by William Hogarth ), which on October 13, 2013 at the Theater an der Wien under the baton of Mikko Franck and was premiered in a production by Jens- Daniel Herzog.

  • ( Monday, February 7, 2011 ) Diva divina, ARTE - Diana Damrau

Discography (selection)

  • COLORaturaS ( opera arias ) with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the baton of Dan Ettinger, 2009
  • Opera & Concert Arias ( Arias by WA Mozart) with Jérémie Rohrer (Conductor) and Le Cercle de l'Harmonie (Orchestra)
  • Aria di bravura ( arias from Salieri, Mozart and Righini )
  • Des Knaben Wunderhorn ( Mahler ), with Iván Paley
  • Songs and Letters ( Clara and Robert Schumann), with Iván Paley, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch
  • Zaide / Mozart ( Zaide ) Vienna 2006
  • Mozart, The Magic Flute ( Queen of the Night ) Covent Garden in London in 2005 and 2006 Salzburg Festival
  • Mozart, The Abduction from the Seraglio ( Konstanze ) Oper Frankfurt
  • Mozart, Ascanio in Alba ( Fauno ) 2006 Salzburg Festival
  • Cerha, The Giant of Steinfeld ( The small woman ) Vienna State Opera in 2002
  • Verdi, Rigoletto ( Gilda ) Saxon State Opera Dresden Semperoper 2008

Awards (selection)

Literature (selection )

  • Manfred Engelhardt: A Günzburgerin conquered the world. In: Augsburger Allgemeine, June 21, 2007, p 3
  • Jacob Rebekah: The Diana, it is only for Günzburg. Italian Night. The hometown is her operatic superstar Damrau 's home game at your feet. In: Augsburger Allgemeine, July 30, 2007, p 3
  • The interview. Theatre trips to Diana. In: The Opera Glass 11/2007, pp. 20-24.
  • Rüdiger Heinze: Blind tasting. Diana Damrau in Munich. A plea for listening to the radio. In: Augsburger Allgemeine, February 8, 2008, p 10
  • Rüdiger Heinze: Liebestolle Diana. Munich Opera Festival moments with Damrau in " Ariadne auf Naxos ". In: Augsburger Allgemeine 26 July 2008, p 13
Richard Strauss Staatstheater Darmstadt Der Rosenkavalier John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Henri Duparc (composer) Helmut Deutsch Jens-Daniel Herzog Vincenzo Righini Integrated Authority File
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