Sacramento (California) born Irene Roberts is one of the most remarkable mezzo-sopranos of her generation, captivating audiences with her powerful vocal expressiveness and commanding stage presence.
In the 2025/26 season, she will appear as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, and the International May Festival in Wiesbaden. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, she will also sing Carmen and Kundry (Parsifal). The highlight of the season will be her role debut as Sieglinde in Tobias Kratzer's new production of Die Walküre at the Bavarian State Opera.
At the 2024 Bayreuth Festival, Irene Roberts made her acclaimed festival debut as Venus in Tobias Kratzer's celebrated production of Tannhäuser, a role she also sang with great success at the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival and in 2022 at the Opéra National de Lyon.
From 2015/16 to 2023/24, Irene Roberts was a member of the ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang a wide repertoire, including Hänsel, Marguerite (La damnation de Faust), Nicklausse, Cherubino, Rosina, Brangäne, and the title role in Carmen. Since then, she has appeared as a guest at the Deutsche Oper as Eboli (Don Carlo), Kundry, and once again as Carmen.
Further guest engagements have taken Irene Roberts to the Bavarian State Opera (Suzuki, Kundry), the Tyrolean Festival Erl (Kundry), the Hanover State Opera (Kundry), the Teatro Massimo Palermo (Brangäne), the New National Theatre Tokyo (Amneris), the Teatro La Fenice (Amneris), the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Opéra de Dijon (Boesmans' Julie), the Stadttheater Klagenfurt (Venus), the Dutch National Opera (Muse/Nicklausse) and the Macerata Opera Festival (Carmen), and in the USA at the San Francisco Opera (Offred/The Handmaid's Tale, Carmen, Dorabella, among others), the Metropolitan Opera, the Palm Beach Opera, the Atlanta Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the New Orleans Opera, and the Lyric Opera Baltimore.
Irene Roberts can be heard on Opera Rara's studio recording as Malvina Douglas in Mercadante's Il Proscritto, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, which was released in 2023.
Irene Roberts is also in demand internationally as a concert singer, performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, the San Francisco Symphony and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Sir Donald Runnicles, and in recitals at Wigmore Hall in London.