Zanda Švēde
Mezzo-soprano
© Barbara Aumüller
Zanda Švēde's roles for the company during the 2026/27 season include Sabina and the Mother in new productions of Respighi's La Fiamma and Lucia Ronchetti's Battaglia - The Women of Palermo, world premiere, commissioned by Oper Frankfurt, the Tsarina (role debut) in Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve, Herodias in Salome and Erda in Das Rheingold. Last season she thrilled audiences here as Cornelia in Giulio Cesare and the title role in Carmen, Vlasta in Weinberg's The (female) Passenger and Leonardo's Wife in a stunning new production of Fortner's Blood Wedding. These were preceded by Pythia in a new Reimann's Melusine, Sonyetka in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (which she sang when the production first opened), Maddalena in Rigoletto and Eduige in Handel's Rodelinda. She joined the Ensemble in 2018/19, since when roles included the title role in Xerxes, Clairon in Capriccio, Nenila in Tchaikovsky's The Sorceress (get the DVD!) and the title role in Handel's Orlando, Zenobia (Radamisto), Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Herodias (Salome) and Hippolyta & Suzuki in new productions of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream & Madama Butterfly, and she gave a recital in the Holzfoyer. She enjoyed great success as Erda and Waltraute in new Siegfrieds and Götterdämmerungs at the Tirol Festival in Erl, 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 roles included 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 lead roles in Massenet's Cléopâtre and Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires.