The Metropolitan Opera has been a second home in which she has performed many of her signature roles, been broadcast in HD to cinemas globally and made seven role debuts since her own debut there as Zerbinetta in 2005. 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.
After having performed “Love Songs” by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms in spring of 2022 alongside tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch (a DVD recording is now available), the artists tour Europe again in spring of 2025 with works by Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. They will first reunite in September of 2024 at the Hollywood Bowl to sing an opera gala under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.
The 2024/25 season takes her from Los Angeles to Catania, where she reprises her program “Amor y Vida”, this time as “Amore e Vita”, featuring only Italian works. She will sing her Operette program once again at Festival der Nationen in October, join Helmut Deutsch for a recital in Fulda and work with conductor Nathalie Stutzmann for the first time in two concerts in Zurich. She will cross into the New Year in Berlin, where she will share the stage with Pavol Breslik and Mauro Peter with Christian Thielemann conducting. She will remain in Berlin to make her much-awaited role debut as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and then go on her tour with Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch.
Last season she made her role debut as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus in a new production by Barrie Kosky at the Bayerische Staatsoper. She closed her season with one final performance of it at the Münchner Opernfestspiele after having replaced an indisposed colleague as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro. She also sang two spring concerts in Vienna, a Richard Strauss concert in Zurich, toured with tenor Nikolai Schukoff with repertoire featured in her most recent Operette album and joined a star-studded cast of performers in a concert gala celebrating Antonio Pappano’s 23-year tenure as Music Director of the Royal Ballet & Opera. She also performed her “Amor y Vida” program in Germany and Brazil alongside Maestro Pavel Baleff.
The soprano has 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 (Theater an der Wien, 2013) and as Drunken Woman/Gym Instructress in Lorin Maazel’s 1984 (Royal Ballet & Opera, 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, she 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 New Year’s Eve concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Diana Damrau is Kammersängerin of the Bayerische Staatsoper (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.
