Kirill Petrenko 

German soprano Ricarda Merbeth is one of the leading singers in her field, and is in demand worldwide as a Wagner and Strauss interpreter.

After studying at the Hochschule für Musik "Mendelssohn Bartholdy" in Leipzig, she began her career first in Magdeburg and Weimar. In 1999 she made her debut as Marzelline in Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera and was an ensemble member until 2005. Since then she has sung roles such as Contessa, Donna Anna, Pamina, Fiordiligi, Chrysothemis, Elisabeth, Eva, Irene, Elsa, Marschallin and Sieglinde.

A particular highlight was her Daphne in a new production at the Vienna State Opera in 2004. With this title role by Richard Strauss, Ricarda Merbeth made her breakthrough to an international career. The artist is still associated with the Vienna State Opera today through regular guest engagements, in 2001 she was honored with the Eberhard Waechter Medal and in 2010 she was appointed Austrian Chamber Singer by the then director of the Vienna State Opera, Ioan Holender.

Other milestones in her career include engagements at the Bayreuth Festival: in 2000 in the Jürgen Flimm Ring as Freia and Gutrune, from 2002 to 2005 and 2007 as Elisabeth in TANNHÄUSER, and from 2013 to 2018 she sings the role of Senta in the current production DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER.

Ricarda Merbeth has been working as a freelancer since 2006 and has sung at leading opera houses such as the Hamburg State Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Bavarian State Opera Munich, La Scala Milan, Deutsche Oper Berlin, New National Theatre Tokyo, Opera Nationale de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, Dutch National Opera, and the opera houses of Toulouse, Marseille, Barcelona, Helsinki, Stockholm, Zurich, Sydney, Vienna, Vienna Musikverein, New York.

She sings all the important roles of her repertoire: Brünnhilde (WALKÜRE), Brünnhilde (SIEGFRIED), Brünnhilde (GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG), Isolde (TRISTANUND ISOLDE), Senta (DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER), Kundry (PARSIFAL), Ortrud (LOHENGRIN), Elsa (LOHENGRIN), Elisabeth and Venus (TANNHÄUSER),
Färberin (FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN), Elektra (ELEKTRA), Helena (ÄGYPTISCHE HELENA), Salome (SALOME), Ariadne (ARIADNE AUF NAXOS), Marschallin (ROSENKAVALIER), Turandot (TURANDOT) and Leonore (FIDELIO).

Her concert repertoire includes Wesendonck-Lieder, War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Stabat Mater by Szymanowski, Glagolitic Mass by Leos Janacek, Four Last Songs and Brentano-Lieder by Richard Strauss, the 8th Symphony by Gustav Mahler.

In November 2018, the singer made her successful debut as Elektra in Patrice Chéreau's legendary production at La Scala in Milan.

Sie arbeitet mit renommierten Dirigentinnen und Dirigenten wie Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, Frank Beermann, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-whun Chung, Christoph von Dohnányi, Dan Ettinger, James Gaffigan, Daniele Gatti, Edward Gardner, Thomas Guggeis, Marek Janowski, Mariss Jansons, Philippe Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Kirill Petrenko, Donald Runnicles, Pinchas Steinberg, Christian Thielemann, Constantin Trinks, Franz Welser-Möst.

She has worked with the following directors: Daniele Abbado, Philippe Arlaud, Sven-Eric Bechtholf, Calixto Bieto, Nicolas Brieger, Robert Carsen, Luigi De Angelis, Michael Fau, Jürgen Flimm, Kasper Holten, Nicolas Joel, Günter Krämer, Marco Arturo Marelli, Mario Martone, Alex Ollé, Charles Roubaud, Otto Schenk, Matthias von Stegmann, Achim Thorwald, Katharina Wagner, Krzysztof Warlikowski.

In recent years Ricarda Merbeth has worked on her current most important roles - including Isolde, Brünnhilden, Senta, Elektra, Färberin, Ortrud, Turandot - together with Prof. Ks Wolfgang Millgramm in Berlin.