Barbara Zechmeister
Soprano
© Marcus Boman
Barbara Zechmeister has been singing at Oper Frankfurt since 1996, and the title of Kämmersängerin was bestowed upon her in 2011. During the 2023/24 season her roles include a Landlady in a new production of Zemlinsky's Traumgörge / George the Dreamer, the Woman with a Normal Nose in Rimsky-Korsakov's Night before Christmas (available on DVD!) and a Maid, which she also sang when this new production of Elektra opened last season. Other roles in 2022/23 included Gertrud (the mother) in Hänsel und Gretel in Frankfurt and a Fortune-teller in Arabella (a Frankfurt production!) at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In 2021/22 she sang Pernille and the Woman with a Normal Nose in new productions of Nielsen's Maskerade and Rimsky-Korsakov'sThe Night Before Christmas, (»Performance of the Year« Opernwelt magazine 2021/22), Despina, a role she made her own in Loy's production of Così fan tutte, which won the 2008 FAUST Theater Prize, and La Badessa in Suor Angelica. Other recent roles in Frankfurt have included Mrs Gobineau (Menotti's The Medium), a Forced Labourer in the new production of Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, Evelyne in Křenek's Schwergewicht oder Die Ehre der Nation / Heavyweight, or the Honour of the Nation, Graumann's Wife in a wonderful new production of Schreker's Der ferne Klang / The Distant Sound, the Old Baroness (Barber's Vanessa), Adelaide (Arabella), Gertrud (the mother - Hänsel und Gretel), Marianne Leitmetzerin (Der Rosenkavalier), Mrs. Coyle (Britten's Owen Wingrave), the Old Woman (Weinberg's Die Passagierin / The (female) Passenger) and the Girl (Reimann's Die Gespenstersonate / Ghost Sonata). In previous seasons she sang many leading Mozart roles, Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Freia (Das Rheingold, available on CD & DVD - OehmsClassics), Marguerite (Gounod's Faust), Lady Macduff (Bloch's Macbeth), Donna Clara (Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg / The Dwarf), Grigori Frid's Anne Frank, Salud (de Falla's La vida breve / A Short Life) and Livia in the world premiere of Glanert's Caligula (available on CD - OehmsClassics). Guest engagements have taken Barbara Zechmeister to places including Mannheim, Hannover, Stuttgart, Essen, Rouen, Lisbon and the Wexford and Bregenz festivals.