Michaela Schuster
Dutch National Opera - Die Frau ohne Schatten
No singer has embodied the role of the Nurse as often on opera stages around the world and perfected it as much as Michaela Schuster, who adds her own expression to each phrase and increasingly adds a little more eccentricity to her bloodcurdlingly captivating mezzo-soprano voice.
Bachtrack (05.05.2025)Berlin State Opera - Die Frau ohne Schatten
The crowning glory of the evening clearly went to Michaela Schuster's captivating, vocally powerful Amme. Transformed by the director into a puppet master with dark red hair and black wings, she delivered every word fiercely yet clearly articulated into the audience – her voluminous, omnipresent voice filled every corner of the house.
klassik-begeistert.de (10.11.2024)Representation
Worldwide general managment
Contact
Season 25/26 and Highlights
PALAU DE LES ARTS REINA SOFIA
Strauss - Salome - Herodias
Apr 24/28, May 2/7/10
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
Strauss - Elektra - Klytämnestra
June 7/11/14/19/23/27
Biography
Michaela Schuster ranks among the leading mezzo-sopranos of our time – acclaimed for her commanding stage presence, vocal expressivity, and dramatic intensity.
In the 2025/26 season, she will appear as Herodias in a new production of Strauss’s Salome at Les Arts Valencia, conducted by James Gaffigan and directed by Damiano Michieletto. She will also return to the San Francisco Opera as Klytämnestra in Strauss’s Elektra. Alongside her international stage career, Michaela Schuster continues to devote herself to teaching as Professor of Voice at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
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In the 2024/25 season, she performed her signature role of the Nurse (Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Berlin State Opera and was also engaged for the new production at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam (production: Katie Mitchell, musical direction: Marc Albrecht). The Zurich Opera House presented her once again as Herodias (Salome) under the baton of Simone Young.
Michaela Schuster’s extensive repertoire encompasses the great roles of the dramatic mezzo-soprano repertoire, including Ortrud (Lohengrin), Fricka (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre), Waltraute (Götterdämmerung), the Nurse (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Madame de Croissy (Dialogues des Carmélites), the Witch and the Mother (Hänsel und Gretel), Herodias (Salome), Clairon (Capriccio), Marie (Wozzeck), and Zia Principessa and Zita (Il trittico).
She appears regularly at the State Operas in Berlin, Munich, and Vienna, at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Zurich Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, and the San Francisco Opera. Her portrayal of Klytämnestra (Elektra) marked a critically acclaimed debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 2017/18 season. Among the outstanding highlights of her career are her Nurse (Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Salzburg Festival and her Kundry (Parsifal) at the Salzburg Easter Festival – both under the musical direction of Christian Thielemann.
Michaela Schuster’s wide-ranging concert repertoire includes major works of the symphonic and vocal literature: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Mahler’s symphonies and songs, Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder, and Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Altenberg Lieder. She has given recitals at venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall and the Schubertiade Hohenems; her song recording Morgen (Oehms Classics) received numerous awards.
She collaborates regularly with distinguished conductors including Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Simone Young, Sebastian Weigle, Franz Welser-Möst, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, and Semyon Bychkov, and with renowned stage directors such as David McVicar, Robert Wilson, Richard Jones, Stefan Herheim, Peter Konwitschny, David Alden, Andreas Kriegenburg, Claus Guth, and Christof Loy.
Her concert engagements have taken her to the Vienna, Hamburg, and Bamberg Symphony Orchestras, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. 2025/26
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