Zanda Švēde
Mezzo-soprano
© Barbara Aumüller
Zanda Švēde's roles for the company during the 2024/25 season include Pythia in a new production of Reimann's Melusine and Sonyetka in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (which she sang when the production first opened), Maddalena in Rigoletto and Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda. Last season she enjoyed a great success with Cornelia in a new production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto, which was preceded by Clairon in Capriccio, Nenila in Tchaikovsky's The Sorceress (get the DVD!) and the title role in Handel's Orlando, both new productions. She also sang Erda and Waltraute in new productions of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the 2023 & 2024 Tirol festivals in Erl. She joined the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt in 2018/19, during which she sang the title roles in Carmen and Handel's Xerxes. This Latvian mezzo-soprano then added another Handel role to her repertoire, Zenobia in Radamisto, sang Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos and gave a recital in the Holzfoyer. During the 2021/22 season she sang Herodias for the first time in Salome, Carmen and Hippolyta and Suzuki in new productions of Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Madama Butterfly. She has sung Carmen at Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Latvian National Opera. She studied at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga and has appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, North Carolina Opera and Palm Beach Opera. While a member of San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program she sang roles including Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Tisbe (La Cenerentola) and Lena in the world premiere of Marco Tutino's La Ciociara. Zanda Švēde's repertoire includes Endimione (Cavalli's La Calisto), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Grimgerde (Die Walküre) and the lead roles in Massenet's Cléopâtre and Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires.