Zanda Švēde
Mezzo-soprano
© Barbara Aumüller
Zanda Švēde's roles for the company this season include Cornelia in a new production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto. Last season she enjoyed great success with Clairon in Capriccio, Nenila in Tchaikovsky's The Sorceress and the title role in Handel's Orlando, both new productions. These were followed by Erda and Waltraute in new productions of Siegfried and Götterdämmerung at the 2023 Tirol Festival 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, which was followed by Sonjetka in a new production of Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth von Mzensk, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos and a recital in the Holzfoyer. During the 2021/22 season her roles included Herodias (role debut) in Salome, Carmen, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Hippolyta in a new production of Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Suzuki in a new 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.