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 2024/25 season she repeats her portrayals of the Woman with a Normal Nose, Pernille and a female forced labourer in revivals of Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve (get the DVD!), Nielsen's Masquerade and Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Last season she enjoyed success with roles including a Landlady in a new production of Zemlinsky's Traumgörge / George the Dreamer and a Maid in Elektra. Other recent roles have 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, Despina, a role she made her own in Loy's production of Così fan tutte, which won the 2008 FAUST Theater Prize, La Badessa in Suor Angelica, Mrs Gobineau (Menotti's The Medium), 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 Elusive Sound, the Old Baroness (Barber's Vanessa), Adelaide (Arabella), 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, get the 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 (get the CD! OehmsClassics). Guest engagements have taken Barbara Zechmeister to places including Mannheim, Hannover, Stuttgart, Essen, Rouen, Lisbon and the Wexford and Bregenz festivals.