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About
The Swedish soprano Maria Bengtsson grew up in a family of musicians. After piano lessons and singing in different choirs she began her singing studies at the high school of Music in Malmö. In 2000 she graduated from the University of Music in Freiburg Germany.
The same year Maria Bengtsson was approved as a member of the ensemble at the Volksoper in Vienna. Two years later she moved to Berlin and the Komische Oper, where she stayed until 2007 and left with a vast repetoire of leading roles, particulary under the direction of Kirill Petrenko
In 2009 she returned to the Komische Oper as a guest performer in the title role of Gluck’s Armide having made her Paris debut as Pamina in The Magic Flute the previous year.
She has also performed at the Graz Opera (Agathe in Der Freischütz and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte); at the Flanders Opera in Anvers (the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro); at the Schwetzingen Festival in the title role of Niobe by Agostino Steffani; the Baden-Baden Festival as Lisa in Bellini’s La Sonnambula; the Frankfurt Opera ( Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and the title role in Daphne); the Berlin Staatsoper (Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Fiordiligi and the title role of Bernstein’s Cunegonde); at Covent Garden in London (Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Fiordiligi and the Countess); the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Pamina and Konstanze); the Bordeaux Opera as Pamina; at the Cologne Opera as Donna Elvira and Poppea in The Coronation of Poppea; Lyon Opera (Donna Anna and Fiordiligi); the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing as Donna Elvira; at the Salzburg Festival as Fiordiligi under the direction of Marc Minkowski; the Royal Opera House of Stockholm as the Countess and at La Fenice in Venice in the roles of Fiordiligi and Donna Anna, a role she also performed at the Berlin Staatsoper and at the Bolshoi Theatre under the direction of Daniel Barenboim and for her debut at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence 2013 with Marc Minkowski.
Pamina, Contessa, Konstanze, Fiordiligi, Antonia, Infantin, Iphigenie, Alice Ford, Gretel and Marie. In 2009 she was brought back for the titlerole of Glucks Armida.
In prestigous opera houses and concert halls around Europe Maria Bengtsson has worked with conducters such as John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Barenboim, Kirill Petrenko, Bertrand de Billy, Thomas Hengelbrock, Marc Minkowski, Sebastian Weigle, Simone Young, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Philippe Jordan, Leopold Hager, Asher Fisch, Michel Corboz, Marc Piollet, Stefan Soltesz, Vladimir Jurowski, Michael Gielen, Konrad Junghänel, Markus Stenz and Chrisopher Moulds.
Ms. Bengtsson has collaborated with stage directors like David McVicar, Hans Neuenfels, Jonathan Miller, Sebastian Baumgarten, Peter Konwitschny, Andreas Homoki, Calixto Bieto, Claus Guth, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Lukas Hemleb, Philippe Arlaud and Kasper Holten (in his acclaimed movie Juan based on Mozart´s Don Giovanni).
During her tenure of the Komische Oper she was a guest at the Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, the Badische Staatstheater, the Semperoper Dresden, at the international Musikfestival in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and at the Baden-Baden Festival.
As a concert singer and recitalist Maria Bengtsson has performed at the Charinthian Summer Festival and the Festival in Berlin as well as at the Vienna Koncerthall, the Vienna Musikverein, the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Teatro Nacional Sao Carlo in Lisbon and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt.
Season 2007/ 2008 Ms Bengtsson made her debuts at the Opera in Graz as Agathe, at the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen/Gent as Contessa, at the Schwetzinger Festival singing the title role in Steffani´s “Niobe, regina di Thebe” in a new production and returned back as Lisa in “La Sonnambulla” at the Baden-Baden Festival.
During the 2008/2009 season she debuted at the Opera National de Paris as Pamina, the Frankfurt Opera as Donna Elvira and returned to the Opera in Graz singing Fiordiligi.
The following 2009/2010 season Ms Bengtsson made her debuts at the Berlin State Opera as Konstanze, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London as Lauretta, the Bayerische Staatsoper as Pamina, the Opéra National de Bordeaux also as Pamina.
With great success she sang the titlerole in Strauss`Daphne in a new production at the Opera in Frankfurt followed by Donna Elvira at the Cologne Opera. She also made her debuts in conserts with the Gewandhaus Orchestera in Leipzig and at the Festival in Salzburg.
Season 2010/2011 she debuted in Beijing at the National Center for the Performing Arts as Donna Elvira, at the Opera Lyon as Donna Anna and Fiordiligi. She returned back to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London as Fiordiligi, to the Bayerische Stateopera in Munich as Konstanze, to the Berlin Stateopera as Fiordiligi and as Cunigonde in a new production of Bernstein´s Candide directed by Vincent Boussard and under the baton of Wayne Marshall.
At the end of that season she made her successful operadebut at the Festival in Salzburg as Fiordiligi in a production by Claus Guth and under the baton of Marc Minkowski.
Season 2011/2012 she made her debut as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Oper in Stockholm and as consertsinger she sang for the first time at the Philharmonie and at the Konzerthaus in Berlin the Lyrischen Symphonie/ Zemlinsky under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. She made her Italy debut at the Opera La Fenice in Venice als Fiordilidi under the baton of Antonello Manacorda and sang for the first time the role Poppea/ Monteverdi (Oper Cologne).
At the end of the season she successfully jumped in as Donna Anna for Anna Netrebko at the Staatsoper in Berlin under the baton of Daniel Barenboim . Directly after that she made her debut as Fiordiligi with the Bamberger Symphoniker , conducted by Jonathan Nott. The performance was broadcasted live on Deutschlandradio.
Season 2012/2013 she has made her debuts in a guestproduktion with Teatro alla Scala as Donna Anna (conductor Daniel Barneboim) at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moskow. In the same role she made her debut at the festival in Aix en Provance under the baton of Marc Minkowski. She returned to the Opera Cologne as Contessa in a new production of Figaro, as Konstanze at the Bayerische Staatsoper München and as Fiordiligi and Donna Anna at the Opera La Fenice in Venice.
She also made concerts at the Philharmonie and at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, at the Philhamonie in Essen, with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem und Haifa and at the Laeiszhalle Philharmonie in Hamburg.
Season 2013/2014 started with a great success as Contessa at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. At the Flemish Opera she made her role debut as Marschallin in a production of the famous actor and Oscar- winner Christoph Waltz.
Season 2014/2015 included her return to the opera in Frankfurt as Daphne and at Theater an der Wien she sang in a staged version of Händel´s Messiah. Two important house debuts took place at the La Scala in Milan as Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) and as Elettra (Idomeneo) at the Vienna State Opera.
Season 2015/2016 After a babybreak of almost one year she started working at the Opera de Paris Bastille as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and was celebrated by both audiences and the press.
Future projects includes among others The Great Gatsby as Daisy Buchanan at the Semper Oper in Dredsen, Der Rosenkavalier (Marschallin) at the Frankfurt Oper, Turn of the screw (Governess) at the Staatsoper Berlin and Capriccio (Gräfin) at the Theater an der Wien.