Diana Damrau

Diana Damrau (German pronunciation: ) is a German operatic soprano. She is particularly associated to works of Mozart, Strauss and the Italian bel canto repertory. Damrau is a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera.

Damrau was born in 1971 in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany, and began her operatic studies with Carmen Hanganu  at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. During her studies, she developed an edema on a vocal fold. After consulting with several doctors, she decided to undergo an alternative therapy without surgery. The treatment lasted about one and a half years. After graduating from music conservatory she worked in Salzburg with Hanna Ludwig .

Her first operatic engagements were in Würzburg and subsequently the National Theatre Mannheim and Oper Frankfurt. Since then, she has sung throughout the world at venues such as the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Royal Opera House London, the Bavarian State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. She was invited to sing the title role in Antonio Salieri's Europa riconosciuta at the re-opening of La Scala, Milan in 2004, under the baton of Riccardo Muti.

The Queen of the Night from Mozart's The Magic Flute has been Damrau's most famous and most frequently performed role to date, as she has been engaged to perform it in over 15 productions at houses including Covent Garden, the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna State Opera, Oper Frankfurt and the Bavarian State Opera. Damrau made Metropolitan Opera history in the 2007/08 season by appearing as both Pamina and Queen of the Night in different performances of the same run. Another notable engagement was her portrayal of all four heroines in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in a new production at the Bavarian State Opera in October 2011. Other coloratura roles in her repertoire include Zerbinetta, Lucia, Elvira, Rosina, Gilda, Adina, Marie, Linda and Aminta. She also performs roles in the lyric repertoire including Manon, Donna Anna, Gretel, Susanna and Pamina.