Christine Schäfer
German soprano Christine Schäfer is one of the most outstanding singers of our times and has triumphed both on the international opera and concert stages. She studied at the Berlin University of Arts with Ingrid Figur and completed her training with Arleen Augér, Aribert Reimann, Sena Jurinac and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
In roles such as Mozart's Konstanze, Cherubino, Pamina and Donna Anna, Alcina, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda, Violetta, Sophie in „Der Rosenkavalier" and Berg's Lulu, Christine Schäfer has appeared at the opera houses of London, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, New York and San Francisco, as well as the Glyndebourne Festival. At the Salzburg Festival, where she made her debut as Lulu in 1995, she has been a regular guest, most recently in 2009 in Handel's oratorio „Theodora".
In roles such as Mozart's Konstanze, Cherubino, Pamina and Donna Anna, Alcina, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gilda, Violetta, Sophie in „Der Rosenkavalier" and Berg's Lulu, Christine Schäfer has appeared at the opera houses of London, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, New York and San Francisco, as well as the Glyndebourne Festival. At the Salzburg Festival, where she made her debut as Lulu in 1995, she has been a regular guest, most recently in 2009 in Handel's oratorio „Theodora".
In recent years she has sung Gretel („Hänsel und Gretel") at the Metropolitan Opera, Fiorilla in „Il turco in Italia" at the Berlin State Opera, the title role in Handel's „Partenope" under Christophe Rousset at the Theater an der Wien, Lucia at the Frankfurt Opera, and Konstanze in Michael Thalheimer's new production of „Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (conducted by Philippe Jordan) at the Berlin State Opera.
In 2010-11 she was heard as Gilda at the Met, Konstanze in Berlin, L'Ange in Messiaen's „Saint François d'Assise" at the Bavarian State Opera, as well as in recital and concert in Vienna, Munich, London, Lucerne, and Los Angeles.
As a concert performer, Christine Schäfer has dedicated herself to a wide-ranging repertoire which includes works from Baroque to contemporary music and which she has interpreted together with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Ingo Metzmacher and Christian Thielemann. For song recitals such specialists as Irwin Gage, Graham Johnson and Eric Schneider are her regular partners, but she also collaborates with Hélène Grimaud, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Daniel Barenboim.
Her most recent recordings include a CD of Reimann's transcriptions of Schumann and Mendelssohn songs („... oder soll es Tod bedeuten?" with the Petersen Quartet), which won an ECHO Klassik Award for the best song recording of the year, Schubert's „Winterreise" and songs by George Crumb and Henry Purcell. The magazine „Opernwelt" named Christine Schäfer Singer of the Year in 2006. In October 2008, the German State President honored her with the Bundesverdienstkreuz, and in the fall of 2009 she was honored with membership in the Akademie der Künste Berlin.