Linda Watson
Soloist and Masterclasses
© Andreas Endermann
After studying in Boston, Kammersängerin Linda Watson began her operatic career at the Aachen Theatre. The opera houses in Leipzig and Düsseldorf were then the springboards to a world career and since her debut as Kundry in Wagner's "Parsifal" at the Bayreuth Festival in 1998 at the latest, she has been one of the most important Wagner and Richard Strauss singers of our time. After starting out as a mezzo-soprano, she sang her first dramatic soprano role in 1995 with Sieglinde (Wagner's "Die Walküre") in Essen and expanded her dramatic repertoire at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein to include Leonore (Beethoven's "Fidelio"), the Wagner roles of Kundry, Isolde ("Tristan und Isolde"), Ortrud ("Lohengrin"), Elisabeth ("Tannhäuser"), Brünnhilde ("Der Ring des Nibelungen") as well as the Strauss roles of Ariadne ("Ariadne auf Naxos"), Feldmarschallin ("Der Rosenkavalier"), Dyer and Nurse ("Die Frau ohne Schatten") and Elektra. She has performed these highly dramatic roles at all the world's major opera houses and worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Christian Thielemann, Antonio Pappano, Daniele Gatti, Axel Kober, Adam Fischer and Kent Nagano. She has performed regularly in Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Bologna, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Los Angeles, La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Bayreuth (1998 as Kundry, 2000 to 2005 as Ortrud, 2006 to 2010 as Brünnhilde).
She has also made numerous recordings, in particular of her three Brünnhilde roles. In 2014, she was nominated for a Grammy Award as "principal soloist" in the "Ring" recording under Christian Thielemann. In 2004 she was appointed Kammersängerin in Germany and in 2020 in Austria. Linda Watson returned to the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in the 2013/14 season, where she sang roles including Marschallin, Brünnhilde, Elektra, Ariadne, Turandot (Puccini) and Isolde. In June 2022, she was made an honorary member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein on the occasion of her retirement from the permanent ensemble. Linda Watson passes on her wealth of experience to the young singers of the opera studio in regular masterclasses.
www.lindawatson.net
She has also made numerous recordings, in particular of her three Brünnhilde roles. In 2014, she was nominated for a Grammy Award as "principal soloist" in the "Ring" recording under Christian Thielemann. In 2004 she was appointed Kammersängerin in Germany and in 2020 in Austria. Linda Watson returned to the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in the 2013/14 season, where she sang roles including Marschallin, Brünnhilde, Elektra, Ariadne, Turandot (Puccini) and Isolde. In June 2022, she was made an honorary member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein on the occasion of her retirement from the permanent ensemble. Linda Watson passes on her wealth of experience to the young singers of the opera studio in regular masterclasses.
www.lindawatson.net
