Marlis Petersen

Marlis Petersen is known as a coloratura soprano, though she has also made a name for herself as an interpreter of contemporary music. After studying at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts in Stuttgart, as well as with Sylvia Geszty, she completed her specialist training in opera, new music and dance. She began her career as a member of the ensemble at the Municipal Theatre in Nuremberg before working at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from 1998 to 2003.

Marlis Petersen performs regularly at renowned opera houses such as the Paris Opéra, La Monnaie, the Berlin, Hamburg, Bavarian and Vienna State Operas, the Theater an der Wien, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Los Angeles Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Her most important roles include Lulu, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Adele and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Marguerite (Les Huguenots), Manon, Thaïs and Elettra (Idomeneo).

As a concert singer, Marlis Petersen performs in Europe and the USA and has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Jeffrey Tate, Daniel Harding, Ingo Metzmacher, Thomas Hengelbrock and Louis Langrée.

Marlis Petersen has appeared in numerous important world premieres including Hans Werner Henze’s Phaedra in Berlin and Brussels, Manfred Trojahn’s La grande magia at the Semperoper in Dresden and Aribert Reimann’s Medea at the Vienna State Opera.

She begins the 2019/20 season by appearing in the title role in Salome at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, followed by a new production of Die tote Stadt under Kirill Petrenko. She also appears as Leonore in a new production of Fidelio in Baden-Baden. Throughout the season, she will be artist in residence with the Berlin Philharmonic, appearing in concert and giving song recitals.

Marlis Petersen won the Austrian Music Theatre Prize in 2013 and was named singer of the year for the third time in 2015 by Opernwelt magazine.