Anja Harteros

Soprano Anja Harteros became the first German artist to claim victory at the Cardiff Singer of the World contest, and her extensive repertoire encompasses Mozart operas through the nineteenth century in both Italian and German languages.

Born July 23, 1972, in the modest community of Bergneustadt within North Rhine-Westphalia, she received early encouragement from her parents to develop her voice and treat music as a profession; a high-school instructor recognized her distinctive gifts and urged formal training. She began lessons locally with Astrid Huber-Aulmann, continuing under that teacher for several years while joining tours that took her to Russia and the United States. Additional instruction followed at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, where she studied with Liselotte Hammes and with Cologne Opera conductor Wolfgang Kastorp, whom she later married. Before finishing her degree in Cologne she already appeared in several productions, and in 1996 she became a member of the Theater Bonn ensemble.

Her decisive breakthrough arrived with the 1999 Cardiff Singer of the World title; as the first German laureate she drew the attention of jury member Peter Jonas, then director of the Bavarian State Opera, who promptly engaged her to sing Agathe in an upcoming staging of Weber’s Der Freischütz. Although she has remained closely linked to that company for the greater part of her career, she has also performed at the Vienna State Opera, the Semperoper in Dresden, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she made her debut in 2003 as Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Early on she concentrated on Mozart roles, yet gradually expanded into later nineteenth-century parts, embracing operas by Verdi and Wagner. Her total repertory exceeds twenty-five roles, and she also sings choral works such as Bruckner’s Te Deum. In 2018 she made her Bayreuth Festival debut in a new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin and received the Bavarian Order of Merit that same year.

Her recorded output includes the 2007 solo recital Bella Voce as well as a 2015 studio account of Verdi’s Aida with tenor Jonas Kaufmann and conductor Antonio Pappano. In 2021 she participated in a new recording of orchestral songs by Wagner, Berg, and Mahler with the Munich Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev.