Linda Watson

Linda Watson (born 1956 She began voice training at age 15 in California, and then studied voice but also piano and conducting at the New England Conservatory in Boston, She made her stage debut in 1986 with the Wiener Vocal Ensemble. conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli. From 2000 to 2005, she portrayed Ortrud in Lohengrin at Bayreuth. She subsequently appeared as Brünnhilde at many of the world's great opera houses, including at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, even in a nine-hour compilation of all the Ring in one day. She added more dramatic roles to her repertoire, including Isolde, Elektra, and both the Dyer's Wife and the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten. The credibility of her portrayals and her vocal bravura led to engagements worldwide, in Munich, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, at La Scala in Milan, Florence, Bologna, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She has worked with a conductors including Claudio Abbado, Bertrand de Billy, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Hartmut Haenchen, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Antonio Pappano, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Christian Thielemann. In 2013 and 2014, the singer returned to the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein to perform as Marschallin, Elektra, Ariadne and Brünnhilde. At the Vienna State Opera, she was appointed Kammersängerin in January 2020. At La Scala in Milan, Linda Watson could be seen and heard in the 2020/21 season as Herodias in Salome.

Watson is also successful as a concert singer, performing in Verdi's Messa da Requiem, and also pieces of the Second Viennese School such as Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs and Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder. A special focus of her concert repertoire are the vocal works of Gustav Mahler, his Second and Third Symphonies, Das Lied von der Erde, Kindertotenlieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Rückert Lieder. She made numerous recordings and recordings, especially as Brünnhilde. In an interview, she said that she was most proud of the Ring recording from Vienna that was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Watson is a professor of voice at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.

Roles Beethoven: Leonore in Fidelio Prokofiev: Babulenka in The Gambler Puccini: Title role in Turandot Strauss: Herodias in Salome Title role in Elektra Marschallin im Der Rosenkavalier Title role in Ariadne auf Naxos Dyer's Wife and Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten Wagner: Elisabeth and Venus in Tannhäuser Ortrud in Lohengrin Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre Brünnhilde in Siegfried Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung Brangäne and Isolde in Tristan und Isolde Kundry in Parsifal

Awards 2004: German Kammersängerin 2014: Nomination for a Grammy Award for Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen 2020: Austrian Kammersängerin