Claudia Mahnke is a German operatic

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

, a member of the

Oper Frankfurt The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt. Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Schreker's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, ''Fennimore and Gerda, Fennimore ...

, with guest appearances at leading opera houses and the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

Career

Mahnke was born in

Meerane Meerane () is a town in the Zwickau district of Saxony, Germany. It lies midway between the towns of Altenburg and Zwickau, west of Chemnitz. As of 31 December 2015, there were 14,851 inhabitants. The population has declined from a peak of over 2 ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

, Germany. While she attended school she was already taking voice lessons. After the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, she studied voice at the

Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber The Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber (or Dresden University of Music Carl Maria von Weber; also/formerly known as Dresden Conservatory or Dresden Royal Conservatory) is a university school of music, university of music in Dresden, ...

in Dresden. She made her stage debut in 1991, still during her studies. She was a member of the ensemble of the

Theater Chemnitz Theater Chemnitz is a German municipal theater organization based in Chemnitz. Performances of opera, ballet, plays, symphonic concerts, and puppet theater take place in its three main venues: * ''Opernhaus Chemnitz'' (for opera, ballet and musica ...

from 1992 to 1995. In 1994, Mahnke gained the prize of the

Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin The German national competition Bundeswettbewerb Gesang Berlin was inaugurated in 1966 as a competition for solo singing. Beginning in 1979, it has been held annually, for the categories Musical theatre, Musical and Chanson in uneven years, for Ope ...

in the category opera/operetta/concert. She joined the

Staatsoper Stuttgart The Staatsoper Stuttgart (Stuttgart State Opera) is a German opera company based in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart serves as its resident orchestra. History Performances of operas, ballet an ...

in 1996. She performed the title role in Karl Amadeus Hartmann's ''

Simplicius Simplicissimus ''Simplicius Simplicissimus'' () is a picaresque novel of the lower Baroque style, written in five books by German author Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen published in 1668, with the sequel ''Continuatio'' appearing in 1669. Inspired b ...

'', in a production shown also at the

Munich Opera Festival The Munich Opera Festival () takes place yearly in the Bavarian capital from late June to late July. Preceding on the calendar the two nearby festivals of Bayreuth and Salzburg, which both start in late July, the festival summarizes the concludin ...

of 2005. The performance earned her several nominations for ''Singer of the Year'' of the journal ''

Opernwelt ''Opernwelt'' (''Opera World'') is a monthly German magazine for opera, operetta and ballet. It includes news about current performances, portraits of composers and performers, articles about opera houses, performance spaces, and contemporary and ...

''. She was awarded the title

Kammersänger Kammersänger (male; ) or Kammersängerin (female; ), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German Title of honor, honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music. It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was besto ...

in in August 2006. From the 2006/07 season, she has been a member of the

. She appeared as a guest at leading opera houses such as the

Komische Oper Berlin The Komische Oper Berlin is a German opera company based in Berlin. The company produces operas, operettas and musicals. The opera house is located on Behrenstraße, near Unter den Linden. Since 2004, the Komische Oper Berlin, along with the Be ...

, the

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

and

Opéra National de Lyon The Opéra National de Lyon (), marketed as Opéra de Lyon during the last decade, is an opera company in Lyon, based and performing mostly at the Opéra Nouvel, an 1831 theater that was modernized and architecturally transformed in 1993. Histo ...

. She toured with the ensemble of the

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. Mahnke made her debut at the

in 2013 as Fricka, Waltraute and Second Norne in Wagner's ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compo ...

''. After repeating these parts the two following years, she appeared as Brangäne in ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...

'' in 2016. In 2017, she appeared in Frankfurt as Dido in ''

Les Troyens ''Les Troyens'' (; in English: ''The Trojans'') is a French grand opera in five acts, running for about five hours, by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself from Virgil's epic poem the ''Aeneid''; the score was composed be ...

'', convincingly interpreting in the final scene of 25 minutes the heroine's progression from hurt vulnerability to furious despair ("alle Stufen der schmerzlichen Verletztheit und der wütenden Verzweiflung").

Bibliography

Wilhelm Kosch Wilhelm Franz Josef Kosch (2 October 1879 – 20 December 1960) was an Austrian historian of literature and theatre and lexicographer. The lexicon that he conceived and later revised several times, the ''Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon'' is a refere ...

(ed.):

Deutsches Theater-Lexikon The ''Deutsche Theater-Lexikon'' is, according to its subtitle, a "biography and bibliography manual". The encyclopedia lists stage actors from the German-speaking area. The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek leads the ''Deutsche Theater-Lexikon'' under ...

. Nachtragsband M–Pa. De Gruyter, Berlin. November 2015. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahnke, Claudia Living people People from Meerane 1967 births German operatic mezzo-sopranos Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber alumni 20th-century German women opera singers 21st-century German women opera singers