Diana Damrau is a regular guest on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. Her extensive repertoire lies in the lyric and coloratura fach and includes, among others, the title roles in Donizetti’s "Lucia di Lammermoor", Massenet’s "Manon", as well as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s "The Magic Flute". She regularly performs at major houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and La Scala in Milan. Roles were specially composed for her in the operas "A Harlot’s Progress" by Iain Bell (Theater an der Wien, 2013) and "1984" by Lorin Maazel (Royal Opera House, 2005). Diana Damrau has released numerous award-winning CD and DVD recordings. As a recitalist, she regularly appears in prestigious concert halls such as London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonie. She maintains a close artistic partnership with pianist Helmut Deutsch and tenor Jonas Kaufmann, with whom she presented a successful Lieder recital tour for the thrid time in the spring and summer of 2025, including performances at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival. On the opera stage, she recently sang the Marschallin ("Der Rosenkavalier") at the Berlin State Opera and at the Zurich Opera House. She is a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera, recipient of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, as well as the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since autumn 2024, she has taught voice as a principal lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts.
19. March 2018
Songs by Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss
Before appearing as Donizettis Maria Stuarda on the stage of the Zurich Opera House in April, Diana Damrau will be performing in a song recital. Together with the pianist Helmut Deutsch she devotes herself to the Italian song book/Italienisches Liederbuch by Hugo Wolf in the first part of her program. In these charming, often ambiguous miniatures, Wolf succeeds in capturing the message of the text musically with the utmost precision - regardless of whether it is about an enthusiastically exuberant declaration of love or a small, well-placed malice. The second part is dedicated to compositions by Richard Strauss. The Four Last Songs/Vier letzten Lieder, seldom accompanied by the piano, are a rarity.
Cast
Diana Damrau
Helmut Deutsch
Helmut Deutsch is one of the most sought-after and successful Lied pianists of our time. Born in Vienna, he studied piano and composition at the city’s University of Music and Performing Arts, as well as musicology at the University of Vienna. He specialized in song accompaniment and chamber music and began his international concert career as the piano partner of Irmgard Seefried. Since then, he has appeared in the world’s leading concert halls and at major festivals with many distinguished singers, including Juliane Banse, Grace Bumbry, Ileana Cotrubas, Diana Damrau, Brigitte Fassbaender, Angelika Kirchschlager, Genia Kühmeier, Christiane Oelze, Anne Sofie von Otter, Dawn Upshaw, Ruth Ziesak, Olaf Bär, Matthias Goerne, Dietrich Henschel, Wolfgang Holzmayr, Jonas Kaufmann, Thomas Moser, Christoph Prégardien, Josef Protschka, Thomas Quasthoff, Andreas Schmidt, Bo Skovhus, Peter Schreier, Christoph Strehl, Michael Volle, and Bernd Weikl, and has released several highly acclaimed recordings on various labels. He enjoyed a twelve-year close artistic partnership with the baritone Hermann Prey. Helmut Deutsch is a winner of the Vienna Composition Prize, teaches at the University of Music in Munich, and gives masterclasses and interpretation courses throughout Europe and Japan.