Anna Prohaska

2024 Opus Klassik Female Singer of the Year, the Austrian-English soprano Anna Prohaska made her debut aged 18 at Berlin’s Komische Oper as Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and soon after with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, entering the ensemble at age 23. She has since gone on to have an extraordinary international career with some of the world’s greatest opera houses and orchestras.

Operatic highlights include Zabelle in the world premiere of George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this & Morgana (Alcina)for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Constance (Les Dialogues des Carmélites) and Nannetta (Falstaff) for the Royal Opera House, (Pelléas et Mélisande) for the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Merab (Saul) and Angelica (Orlando) for Theater an der Wien, Zerlina (Don Giovanni) for La Scala, title role (Orphée et Eurydice) for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) at Opéra national de Paris, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) in Baden-Baden, Iphis (Jephtha) in Amsterdam, as well as Marzelline (Fidelio), Purcell’s Fairy Queen, Blonde, Ännchen (Der Freischütz) and Adele (Die Fledermaus) for the Bayerische Staatsoper. A regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, Anna has appeared as Vitellia, Zerlina, Despina, Deola in Luigi Nono’s Al Gran Sole Carico d’Amore, Susanna and Cordelia in Aribert Reimann’s King Lear.

Noted for her diverse repertoire with the Deutsche Staatsoper, her roles include Anne Trulove, Susanna, Sophie, Pamina, Ilia, Oscar, Blonde, Poppea, Euridice, Aricie, Ännchen, Anna Reich as well as world premieres by Beat Furrer and Peter Ruzicka. Conductors she has worked with include Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Philippe Jordan, Gustavo Dudamel and René Jacobs.

In huge demand on the concert platform, Anna has performed regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker since her debut with them aged 24, performing under Rattle, Harding and Abbado. Other orchestras include the Vienna Philharmonic under Boulez, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jansons, Harding, Blomstedt and Nézet-Séguin, the LSO under Rattle, Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra under John Eliot Gardiner, the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under von Dohnányi. Recent seasons have included artistic residencies at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzertahus Dortmund, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Philharmonie Luxembourg.

Plans for the 25/26 season include the Governess (Turn of the Screw) directed by Deborah Warner for Opera Roma; Ismène (Antigone) in Pascal Dusapin’s world premiere conducted by Klaus Mäkelä; a return to Zabelle in George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this at the Teatro di San Carlo; and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and at the Liceu Barcelona.

On the concert platform, Anna will join the Toronto Symphony Orchestra – who she appeared with as a Spotlight Artist in the 24/25 season – for their European tour performing Mahler 4; she will also reunite with Sir Simon Rattle for performances of Henze’s Floß der Medusa with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

The season sees Anna perform with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; the Varian Fy Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic; and the Phantasm Viol Consort. She will also continue to tour Kurtág’s Kafka Fragmente with violinist Isabelle Faust.

Anna’s various recordings and music videos made her the subject of a documentary feature “The Fabulous World of Anna Prohaska” dir. Andreas Morell in 2013. Her first solo album, ‘Sirène’, was released in 2011 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, followed by ‘Enchanted Forest’ in 2013 and ‘Behind the Lines’ in 2014. Recent albums include charttopping ‘Serpent & Fire’ with Il Giardino Armonico, ‘Paradise Lost’ with Julius Drake, ‘Bach: Redemption’ with Lautten Compagney and ‘Celebration of Life in Death’ with La Folia Barockorchester for Alpha Classics, and ‘György Kurtág: KafkaFragmente’ with Isabelle Faust for Harmonia Mundi. Last season also saw the release of her latest album ‘Maria Mater Meretrix’ with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Camerata Bern for Alpha Classics.