German soprano Anja Kampe is one of today‘s most important singers. Her portrayals of significant roles have set the standard for other performers, including her Brünnhilde in the new Ring des Nibelungen (Tcherniakov/Thielemann) at Berlin State Opera, Kundry at Wiener Staatsoper and at Operá de Paris, Sieglinde at Bayreuth Festival, Isolde at Berlin and Munich State Opera, Katerina Ismailova and Minnie (La Fanciulla del West) at Bayerische Staatsoper München, Brünnhilde (Die Walküre) at the Salzburg Easter Festival, and most recently her role debut as Marie (Wozzeck) at Vienna State Opera.
Anja Kampe opened the 2024/25 season as Isolde in a new production at San Francisco Opera with Eun Sun Kim conducting. She will then appear as Brünnhilde in concert performances of Die Walküre with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Simone Young. She will sing the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos at Hamburg State Opera in a new production directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov. At Semperoper Dresden, Kampe will take on Ortrud in Lohengrin, having appeared before in concert as Isolde with the Dresden Philharmonic under Marek Janowski and in Monte-Carlo under Philippe Jordan. As Kundry, Ortrud and Brünnhilde she returns to Vienna State Opera in three of the most important roles of her repertoire, before ending the season as Ortrud at the Munich Opera Festival.
Among the most important engagements of recent seasons are Giorgetta in a new production of Il Trittico in Vienna, her debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York as Senta in The Flying Dutchman, new productions of Fanciulla del West with Antonio Pappano and Tristan und Isolde with Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera, the new production of Parsifal conducted by Philippe Jordan at the Opéra National de Paris, and Sieglinde at both the Bayreuth Festival and the Munich Opera Festival under Kirill Petrenko.
Kampe achieved her international breakthrough as Sieglinde, at the side of Placido Domingo, at Washington National Opera. She has performed this same role in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Munich, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, London and Bayreuth. Senta has also become a central role of Kampe’s, and she has sung it in New York, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden, Vienna, Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels, London, Tokyo and Dallas.
Kampe has worked with conductors including Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Mark Elder, Adam Fischer, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Marek Janowski, Simone Young, Vladimir Jurowski, Jesùs López-Cobos, Fabio Luisi, Nicola Luisotti, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Kazushi Ono, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sebastian Weigle and Franz Welser-Möst.
Some of the most prestigious productions in which Kampe has performed are also available on DVD, including Die Walküre from the Salzburg Easter Festival, Der fliegende Holländer from Zürich and Parsifal from the Staatsoper Berlin. Additionally, recordings of Tristan und Isolde and Fidelio featuring Ms. Kampe were released by the Glyndebourne Festival, as was Die Gezeichneten from Los Angeles. Ms. Kampe’s recording of Die Walküre conducted by Valery Gergiev was awarded the Echo Klassik as the best opera recording of the year in 2013.