Diana Damrau stands out to many observers as a fully accomplished soprano, having launched her path in coloratura parts before moving successfully into lyric and bel canto territory. Her lovely timbre and remarkable facility enable her to scale extreme high notes without apparent strain, while her strong dramatic instinct lends authentic feeling and credibility to the characters she portrays onstage, where her warmth and appeal further enhance her presence. Although she remains most closely identified with parts from Mozart and Richard Strauss operas, her stage repertory also embraces works by Vivaldi, Rossini, Wagner, and additional composers, and she regularly performs lieder by Richard Strauss, Mahler, and Wolf. Major houses and halls throughout the United States and Europe, among them the Met, Covent Garden, and the Vienna Musikverein, feature her often. In 2023 she revisited her early operetta origins on the album Operette: Wien, Berlin, Paris.
Born in Günzburg, Germany, on May 31, 1971, Damrau trained at the Würzburg Musikhochschule under Carmen Hanganu and continued studies in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig. She developed her career through engagements at the Stadttheater Würzburg, followed by the Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Frankfurt Opera, where she frequently appeared in operettas such as Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe and in musicals including My Fair Lady. Her first operatic performance took place in 1995 at Würzburg’s Mainfranken Theater as Mozart’s Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.
She reached Covent Garden in 2003, singing the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. The next year she took the title role in Salieri’s L’Europa riconosciuta for a televised performance from La Scala under Riccardo Muti. Further recognition arrived with her 2005 Metropolitan Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. In 2007 she surprised Met audiences by performing Pamina across six shows and then stepping into the Queen of the Night for two additional performances within the same series. Among her principal recordings issued that year were Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Iván Paley and her initial solo disc, Arie di Bravura.
Damrau wed bass-baritone Nicolas Testé in 2010. Following the arrival of their first son that same year, she maintained an active calendar that included a 2011 portrayal of Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani in Geneva and subsequent Met appearances as Countess Adèle in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory and as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto. The birth of a second son in 2012 likewise failed to interrupt her momentum; she returned to the stage in 2013 to create the title role in Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress at Theater an der Wien. Echo Klassik Awards recognized her albums Poesie (2011) and Forever (2014), while the Opus Klassik named her Female Singer of the Year in 2018 for Grand Opera. In 2020 she released Tudor Queens with Antonio Pappano and a collection of Richard Strauss lieder with Helmut Deutsch and Mariss Jansons. My Christmas appeared in 2022, and she returned to operetta repertoire with Operette: Wien, Berlin, Paris the following year.
