Professional career

Christiane Kohl grew up in Idstein

Idstein

Idstein is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt it is part of the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße , connecting towns with fine timber-frame buildings and...

. After her Abitur

Abitur

Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

 at the Pestalozzi-Gymnasium she studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Lilian Sukis

Lilian Sukis

Lilian Sukis is a Canadian operatic soprano of Lithuanian birth. After earning diplomas from the University of Toronto and McMaster University, she made her professional opera debut in 1964 as Kate Pinkerton in Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the Canadian Opera Company...

 and Elisabeth Wilke. She received her diploma with distinction in 2003.

In 2000 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival

Salzburg Festival

The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

 as First Priestess in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride

Iphigénie en Tauride

Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....

. In 2001 she appeared at the Wiener Kammeroper

Wiener Kammeroper

Wiener Kammeroper is an opera theatre and opera company founded by conductor Hans Gabor. As early as 1948 he initiated the "Vienna Opera Studio" - a company without a theatre of its own...

 for the 90th birthday of Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...

 in his presence as Laetitia in his opera Die alte Jungfer und der Dieb

The Old Maid and the Thief

The Old Maid and the Thief is an opera in one act by Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The work uses an English language libretto by the composer which tells a twisted tale of morals and evil womanly power...

. She was a member of the Zurich Opera

Zurich Opera

Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...

 from 2002 to 2009, performing such roles as Angèle Didier in Der Graf von Luxemburg

Der Graf von Luxemburg

Der Graf von Luxemburg is an operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár to German libretto by Alfred Willner, Robert Bodanzky, and Leo Stein. It premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, on 12 November 1909 and was an immediate success...

, Elvira in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri

L'italiana in Algeri

L'italiana in Algeri is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Angelo Anelli, based on his earlier text set by Luigi Mosca...

, the First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Gretel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Helmwige in Die Walküre

Die Walküre

Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...

, Iris in Semele, Lisa in Bellini's La sonnambula

La sonnambula

La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...

, and Musetta in Puccini's La bohème

La bohème

La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...

. In 2008 she performed the role of Christine in Intermezzo

Intermezzo (opera)

Intermezzo is an opera in two acts by Richard Strauss to his own German libretto, described as a Bürgerliche Komödie mit sinfonischen Zwischenspielen . It premiered at the Dresden Semperoper on November 4, 1924, with sets that reproduced Strauss' home in Garmisch...

of Richard Strauss, conducted by Peter Schneider

Peter Schneider (conductor)

Peter Schneider is an Austrian conductor and opera administrator.Schneider served as kapellmeister of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf-Duisburg from 1961 to 1968; general music director of the Bremer Philharmoniker from 1978 to 1985; opera director and general music director of...

 and staged by Jens-Daniel Herzog

Jens-Daniel Herzog

Jens-Daniel Herzog is a German stage director for play and opera, and a theater manager.-Professional career:Jens-Daniel Herzog was born in Berlin, the son of the actor Peter Herzog. He studied Philosophy at the FU Berlin....

. A review in the FAZ

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...

 by Holger Noltze translates to:

With clear articulation, great eloquence and the necessary resources Christiane Kohl met the demands of the role, continually switching through all the shades between parlando and singing, and between a well-judged bitchy tone and finely shaped lines.

In 2008 Kohl recorded in the Frauenkirche Dresden the Christmas oratorio of Gottfried August Homilius

Gottfried August Homilius

Gottfried August Homilius was a German composer, cantor, and organist. He was the main representative of the empfindsamer style....

, with Annette Markert

Annette Markert

Annette Markert is a German classical mezzo-soprano and alto.- Biography :Annette Markert studied voice at the Leipzig School of Music and was engaged at the Halle Opera House in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt from 1983 to 1990, then at the opera house in Leipzig.Since 1996 she has worked as a free-lance...

, Marcus Ullmann

Marcus Ullmann

- Professional career :Marcus Ullmann received his first musical training as a choir boy in the Dresdner Kreuzchor. He studied at the Dresden Music Academy and graduated with honours in Lieder, Choral Work and Opera...

, Tobias Berndt, Sächsisches Vocalensemble and Virtuosi Saxoniae, conducted by Ludwig Güttler

Ludwig Guttler

Ludwig Güttler, also Ludwig Guttler, is an internationally known German trumpet and corno da caccia virtuoso....

. With the choir Gemischter Chor Zürich she performed in 2008 Mozart's Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

and Bach's Oster-Oratorium

Easter Oratorio

The Easter Oratorio , BWV 249, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, Kommt, eilet und laufet , first performed in Leipzig in 1725.- History :...

with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich

Tonhalle Orchester Zurich

Tonhalle Orchester Zürich is a symphony orchestra founded in 1868 in Zürich Switzerland, where it established its residence in the neue Tonhalle in 1895....

, and in 2010 Bruckner's Mass in F minor

Mass No. 3 (Bruckner)

The Mass No. 3 in F minor WAB 28 by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the mass ordinary for vocal soloists, chorus, orchestra and organ. After the 1867 success of Bruckner's Mass No...

.

She has worked as a free-lance singer since 2009. She has performed since 2008 the role of Lisa in Lehárs Das Land des Lächelns

The Land of Smiles

The Land of Smiles is a romantic operetta in three acts by Franz Lehár. The German language libretto was by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner. The performance time is about 100 minutes....

at the Volksoper Wien. In the 2009-2010 season she sang as a guest artist at the Kiel Opera House

Kiel Opera House

The Peabody Opera House is a civic performing arts building in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded as the Kiel Opera House, it opened it 1934 and operated until 1991, when it and the adjacent Kiel Auditorium were closed so the auditorium could be demolished and replaced by the Scottrade Center...

 as Hanna Glawari in Die lustige Witwe

The Merry Widow

The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...

.

Kohl made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival

Bayreuth Festival

The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...

 in 2009 in four parts of Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, Klingsors Zaubermädchen in Parsifal

Parsifal

Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...

conducted by Daniele Gatti

Daniele Gatti

Daniele Gatti is an Italian conductor.Official website: He is currently Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, a role he assumed in September, 2008 , and also Chief Conductor of the Zurich Opera, a position he began in September, 2009; his contract is for three seasons, after which...

, Woglinde in both Das Rheingold

Das Rheingold

is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...

and Götterdämmerung

Götterdämmerung

is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...

, and Waldvogel in Siegfried

Siegfried (opera)

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...

, all conducted by Christian Thielemann

Christian Thielemann

-Career:Thielemann studied viola and piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and took private lessons in composition and conducting before becoming répétiteur aged 19 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Heinrich Hollreiser and working as Herbert von Karajan's assistant...

. She repeated all those parts in 2010. In 2010 she sang at the Oper Frankfurt for the first time, the role of Helmwige in a new production of Die Walküre. In November 2010 she was the soprano soloist in Verdi's Messa da Requiem in St. Martin, Idstein

St. Martin, Idstein

St. Martin in Idstein, Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, is the church of the local Roman Catholic parish. The official name is Katholische Pfarrkirche St. Martin. The parish is part of the Diocese of Limburg...

. In February 2011 she performed in her hometown's Unionskirche

Unionskirche, Idstein

The Unionskirche is the Protestant parish church of Idstein, a major town in the German Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis. Idstein was a residence of the Counts of Nassau...

 the first soprano part of Mendelssohn's Lobgesang. In 2011 she performed the part of the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in Klagenfurt. She sang the title role of Mařenka in The Bartered Bride

The Bartered Bride

The Bartered Bride is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The opera is considered to have made a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863–66, and first performed at the...

at the Komische Oper Berlin

Komische Oper Berlin

The Komische Oper Berlin is an opera company in Berlin, Germany, which specializes in German language productions of opera, operetta and musicals....

. Since the 2011/12 season she is a member of the Opernhaus Dortmund

Opernhaus Dortmund

Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, opened in 1966 and formally operated by the Theater Dortmund.-Architecture:...

 and appeared in the first production of director Jens-Daniel Herzog, as Senta in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Jac van Steen

Jac van Steen

Jac van Steen is a Dutch conductor. He studied music theory, as well as orchestral and choral conducting, at the Brabants Conservatory of Music....

, with Andreas Macco in the title role.

External links

• Christiane Kohl on Oper Zürich
• Christiane Kohl on Oper Frankfurt
• Christiane Kohl on Turnus Konzert- und Theater-Agentur
• Bayreuth Festival 2010, reviews