Skip to page content

Dorothea Röschmann

About this Artist

Born in Flensburg, Germany, Dorothea Röschmann was a member of the Ensemble at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, where in 2017, having sung over 20 roles at the theater, she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin. She has been a frequent guest at the Salzburg Festival since her debut in 1995, singing Susanna with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. She returned to the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2016 for Desdemona in Otello. 

At the Wiener Staatsoper, she has appeared as Countess Almaviva, Donna Elvira, Susanna, the Marschallin, and Jenůfa. Her many roles at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, include Zerlina, Susanna, Ännchen, Marzelline, Anne Trulove, Elvira, Rodelinda, and, in 2019, her role debut as Alceste. Elsewhere in Europe, she has appeared at La Monnaie in Brussels, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, singing Pamina, Fiordiligi, Countess, and Donna Elvira. At Teatro alla Scala in Milan, she has sung Countess Almaviva, Florinda (Fierrabras), and Donna Elvira on tour with the company at the Bolshoi Theater with Daniel Barenboim. 

In the U.S., she has appeared many times at the Metropolitan Opera as Susanna, Pamina, Elvira, and Ilia, and sang the title role in Handel’s Theodora and Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Carnegie Hall. She has appeared frequently in concert in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Cincinnati, and San Diego. 

Adding to her extensive operatic repertoire, recent role debuts include Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) at the Semperoper Dresden and in 2021, Ariadne at the Edinburgh International Festival. In the 2022/23 season, she returns to the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and will make a notable debut at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy. 

A prolific concert artist, in the 2019/20 season she sang Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Karina Canellakis and the Orchestre de Paris, Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder (Tove) with Jonathan Nott and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ah! Perfido” and Choral Fantasy with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony, and Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder with Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, in London and on tour in Europe. 

She has performed Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with Daniel Barenboim in Berlin, Daniel Harding in Milan, Antonio Pappano in Rome, Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Rotterdam, and Zubin Mehta in Valencia. Other concert highlights include Schumann’s Faustszenen with Daniel Harding and Berliner Philharmoniker, Wozzeck (Marie) with Harding leading the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 on tour in Europe with Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. 

She is a renowned recitalist, and her recent appearances include London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw, the Wiener Konzerthaus, and Antwerp, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Cologne, Brussels, Oslo, Stockholm, Oxford, and the Edinburgh, Munich, and Schwarzenberg festivals. She has sung in recital with Daniel Barenboim at the Schiller Theater and Boulez Saal in Berlin. With Mitsuko Uchida, she has performed at the Lucerne Festival, Wigmore Hall, and on tour in the U.S., culminating in a recital at Carnegie Hall. The live recording from Wigmore Hall won the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards. 

Other recordings include Ariadne with Lothar Koenigs; Countess Almaviva with Harnoncourt; Pamina and Nannetta with Claudio Abbado; Strauss’ Vier letze Lieder with Nézet-Séguin; Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with Rattle (winner of a Grammy and a Gramophone Award); Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Harding; Handel’s Neun Deutsche Arien with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin; Handel’s Messiah with Paul McCreesh; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with David Daniels and Fabio Biondi, and a disc of Schumann songs with Ian Bostridge and Graham Johnson. She has released two acclaimed CDs on the Sony Classical label: in 2014, her debut recital album Portraits with Malcolm Martineau, and, in 2015, a greatly anticipated Mozart arias disc with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.