Michelle Breedt

Michelle Breedt is an award-winning mezzo-soprano, regularly seen in a wide operatic repertoire. Particularly well-known for her interpretation of Wagnerian and Straussian roles, she won the Eberhard Waechter Medal for the role of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier while singing at the Vienna State Opera.

Michelle Breedt made her highly acclaimed Bayreuth debut as Magdalene in Die Meistersinger, in Wolfgang Wagner’s production, under the baton of Christian Thielemann, in the summer of 2000. She returned to Bayreuth in 2001 and 2002. In 2006 she sang Fricka in the new production of the Ring cycle, again under Thielemann. In September 2000, she joined the Ensemble of the Vienna State Opera for a three year period, during which time she sang a variety of roles including Cherubino (Figaro), Stephano in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, and Octavian, and where she won the Eberhard Waechter Medal. As freelancer from 2004, she continued her association with the Staatsoper singing Brangaene (Tristan und Isolde) in 2005 and 2006. In 2008, she will again sing the role in a new production in Zurich.

Breedt has sung in many German opera houses - the Semperoper in Dresden, State Theatre Hamburg, in Cologne, and many others. Engagements on the opera stages of the world have included the Paris Opera, Octavian at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and in a new Willy Decker production in Amsterdam, and Dorabella (Così fan Tutte) and Octavian in Dresden. Another highlight was the new production in Vienna of Menotti’s Goya in the role of the Duchess of Alba with Placido Domingo in 2004. The Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos) is an increasingly important repertoire role. After performances in Lisbon, Ferrara and Modena, she will take part in a new Claus Guth production in Zurich, under the baton of Christoph von Dohnanyi, at the Vienna Staatsoper in 2007 and in Bilbao in 2008.

Michelle Breedt obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, where she studied singing under Nellie du Toit. After an apprenticeship at the opera houses in Cape Town and Pretoria, she continued her studies at the Guildhall School in London. In 1990 she moved to Germany where she was a member of the Opera Studio in Cologne, thereafter joining the Ensemble of the State Theater in Braunschweig. Whilst there, she began to build her extensive repertoire of roles, ranging of course from the standard Mozart mezzo-soprano repertoire, including relative rarities like Idamantes (Idomeneo) and Ramiro (La finta giardiniera), to bel canto roles like Adalgisa (Norma) and Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), encompassing non-standard repertoire like Diana/Giove in La Calisto by Pier Francesco Cavalli, Anna in Kurt Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden, and Melisande (Pelleas et Melisande). The director of Pelleas et Melisande was Brigitte Fassbaender under whose guidance Michelle Breedt also sang her first Octavian Charlotte in Werther, Carmen and Brangaene in Tristan und Isolde. Madame Fassbaender continues to advise her on repertoire and vocal technique.

She has an active concert and recital career. Since 1997 she has been a regular visitor to the famous Schubertiade Festival in Austria. She made her Recital debut at the Salzburg Festival in August 2004, returning in 2005. She is also to be heard at the Wigmore Hall in London, and in the Berlin Philharmonie and Schauspielhaus, the Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein, as well as regular visits to concert halls in Italy and Austria. Conductors with whom she has worked with include Ozawa, Thielemann, de Billy, Rilling, Welser-Möst, Tate, Schneider, Philippe Jordan and Gerd Albrecht. She is scheduled to work with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in 2008.

She has a considerable discography – her recording of Korngold’s A Midsummer Nights Dream under Gerd Albrecht won the German Critics Award. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro under Michael Halász was released in 2004. A recording of the Wesendonk Lieder was released in 2005 along with Clemenza di Tito on the Sony Label.