Diana Damrau is a regular guest on the stages of the world’s leading opera and concert houses. Her extensive repertoire lies in the lyric and coloratura fach and includes, among others, the title roles in "Lucia di Lammermoor" and "Manon" as well as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s "Die Zauberflöte". She regularly appears at the most important houses such as the Bavarian State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Teatro alla Scala. Roles in Iain Bell’s "A Harlot’s Progress" and Lorin Maazel’s "1984" were composed especially for her. Diana Damrau has released numerous award-winning CD and DVD recordings. As a lieder interpreter, she regularly performs in renowned concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Berlin Philharmonie. She maintains a close artistic partnership with Helmut Deutsch and Jonas Kaufmann, with whom she presented a successful lieder recital tour for the third time in spring and summer of 2025, including at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival. Most recently, she sang the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier" on stage at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and at the Zurich Opera House. She is a Bavarian Kammersängerin, recipient of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, as well as the Federal Cross of Merit. Since autumn 2024, she has been teaching as a principal voice instructor 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.