Portrait Christiane Karg

Christiane Karg

Soprano
© Gisela Schenker
Germany (Concert)

Christiane Karg is one of the most sought-after sopranos internationally. From 2008 to 2013, she was a member of the ensemble at the Oper Frankfurt. Roles such as Pamina, Susanna, Zdenka, Mélisande, Sophie, and the title role in La Calisto, which she later performed successfully at the opera houses of Vienna (Staatsoper and Theater an der Wien), Berlin, Munich, Milan, London, Chicago, New York, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and others, as well as at the festivals in Salzburg and Baden-Baden, were largely first sung by her in Frankfurt. At the Hamburg State Opera, where she began her career in the Opera Studio, she performed roles such as Mélisande, Pamina, Daphne, and Contessa. At the Bavarian State Opera, she was heard as Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Fiordiligi. Recently, she had great success in a new production of Rusalka at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where she will also perform the title role in the coming season.

On the concert stage, the multiple award-winning soprano regularly collaborates with important ensembles and orchestras both domestically and internationally, working with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Herbert Blomstedt, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Marek Janowski, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Klaus Mäkelä, Simone Young, Elim Chan, Pablo Heras-Casado, Antonello Manacorda, and Kirill Petrenko.

Her projects for the current season will take her to Tokyo (Strauss songs with NHK/Fabio Luisi), Copenhagen (Mozart's C Minor Mass under Manfred Honeck), Bamberg (Mahler's Rückert-Lieder under A. Orozco-Estrada), Leipzig and on tour (Mahler's Symphony No. 4 under Andris Nelsons), Munich (Debussy's Le livre de Baudelaire under John Adams), Vienna (Operetta pasticcio under Christian Thielemann), Rome (Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe's Faust under Daniel Harding), Budapest and on tour (Mahler's Symphony No. 2 under Iván Fischer), and Rotterdam (Fauré's Requiem under Lahav Shani).

The soprano studied at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Heiner Hopfner and in the lieder class of Wolfgang Holzmair. Christiane Karg has a particular passion for lieder singing and chamber music projects. She is a regular guest at the Schubertiade in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, as well as at London's Wigmore Hall, which dedicated its own residency to her in 2019/2020. In the 2024/25 season, she will give numerous lieder recitals, including at the Oji Hall in Tokyo, in Stuttgart, at the Musikverein in Vienna, and at the Boulez Saal in Berlin. In addition to her numerous engagements, she designs and oversees her own concert series as the artistic director of the KunstKlang festival in her hometown of Feuchtwangen, and she is passionately committed to music education for children and young people. Among her numerous recordings are ‘Parfum’ with orchestral songs, ‘Erwartung’ with piano songs by Gustav Mahler, and ‘Licht der Welt/ A Christmas Promenade’ (Harmonia Mundi), as well as the aria recordings Amoretti and Scene! (Berlin Classic). 

Christiane Karg's unmistakable voice has been recorded on many CDs. Among others, the CD "Erinnerung" with songs by Gustav Mahler was released by the Harmonia mundi label in the fall of 2020. Her recording of "Le nozze di Figaro" under the baton of Y. Nézet-Séguin, her CD "Scene!" with the Arcangelo Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Jonathan Cohen, and her Lied CD "Verwandlung - Lieder eines Jahres" received several awards. Most recently, the CD "Licht der Welt - A Christmas promenade", which was highly praised by the press, was released in 2021.



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  • "So bildete Christiane Karg mit dieser Konzert-Arie über eine von widerstrebenden Gefühlen geschüttelte Frau, die von ihrem Geliebten verraten wurde und die Götter um Mitleid anfleht, beim Beethoven-Abend des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks unter Iván Fischer im Herkulessaal in jeder Hinsicht das Zentrum. Wie der junge Beethoven hier trotz aller Vorbilder von Gluck bis Mozart musikalische Expressivität und subtile Durchleuchtung des Textes miteinander verbindet, wird in der differenzierten Nachzeichnung durch Christiane Kargs ebenso schlank wie ausdrucksvoll geführten Sopran zum Ereignis."
  • "Vollkommen war die Kongruenz zwischen Solistin und Orchester, die faszinierende Harmonie in allen Ebenen, die klangliche Schönheit der Stimme mit ihren wechselhaften Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten, die atemberaubenden Höhen, die textgerechte Gestaltung, die nahtlosen Wechsel von Tutti und Solo auf vokaler Ebene." (Mozartfest Würzburg, Christiane Karg und das Ensemble „Il Giardino Armonico“)
  • "Als Liedgestalterin mit Sinn für kluge Zurückhaltung. Überdruck hätte diesen Liedern sofort die Luft zum Atmen genommen. Gestalterische Nuancen, subtile Textauskostung, ein Faible für das Fragile dieser Miniaturdramen, all das lag Karg bestens. Sie gurrte, litt, flirtete, schmachtete, und blieb dabei sicher in jenem halbplaudernden, beiläufigen Tonfall, der diese charmant verträumten Lieder auf kluge Distanz zur ernüchternden Realität hält."
    Hamburger Abendblatt
    Joachim Mischke, „Ein delikater Liederabend mit Karg und Quasthoff“, in: Hamburger Abendblatt, 18.06.2019



Elisabeth Ehlers

Elisabeth Ehlers

Director, General Management
e-mail
+49 89 44488790
Katharina Klapsing

Katharina Klapsing

Associate Artist Manager
On maternity leave.
Sophie Kurzbauer

Sophie Kurzbauer

e-mail
Assistant Artist Manager
+49 89 444887910

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