Events12 results
About
The German mezzo-soprano, Christa Mayer, graduated from the Bavarian Academy of Singing.
Born in the town of Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Christa Mayer studied voice at the Bavarian Academy of Singing and Munich’s University of Music and Theatre. She has sung at the Bavarian State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well as Hamburg’s State Opera. In the summer of 2008 she made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in the roles of Erda and Waltraute, under the baton of Christian Thielemann.
In the Wagner Jubilee Year of 2013 she not only sang at Bayreuth but also in diverse productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Berlin Philharmonie, the State Opera Hamburg as well as the Lucerne Festival. Christa Mayer has been an ensemble member of the Semperoper Dresden since 2001.
Upon completing her education in 2001, Christa Mayer joined the Semperoper in Dresden. At that opera house she has performed in roles such as: Erda in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Fenena in Nabucco, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Adelaide in Arabella, and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff. She portrayed the role of Schwertleite in Die Walküre at the Berlin State Opera and has also made appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She has performed at many international festivals including Rheingau Musik Festival, Schleswig-Holstein and Bad Kissingen festivals as well as Schubertiade at Schwarzenberg. She is particularly known for her portrayal of Erda in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen; a role which she has performed several times (2008, 2009) at the Bayreuth Festival and recorded on the BBC Legends Record Label.
In 2001, Christa Mayer sang in the premiere of Rudi Spring's Heimkunft, his Chamber Symphony No. 3, after Friedrich Hölderlin in Tettnang. She performed Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder at the Septembre Musical in Montreux, Switzerland in 2004. At the Bavarian State Opera she has been heard as Schwertleite in Die Walküre. In 2007, on the request of Zubin Mehta, she sang Erda and Schwertleite in Die Walküre at the newly built Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. She also performed Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto in Dresden in 2008, along with Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Florez. Also in Dresden, she sand in 2009 Cornelia in Guilio Cesare in Egitto by George Frideric Handel, and in 2010 Gaea in Daphne by R. Strauss. Her recent roles have been Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea and Gaea in Daphne. She sang as a guest at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Bavaria with Cellist Misha Quint in 2010.