Yvonne Naef

Yvonne Naef (November 9, 1957 – December 18, 2025) was a Swiss operatic mezzo-soprano. She performed for the Zurich Opera, and later at the Royal Opera House in London and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Biography Naef studied in Zürich, Basel, and Mannheim, among others with Kurt Widmer and Barbara Martig-Tüller. After making her stage debut in 1989, she held early engagements at the Stadttheater St. Gallen (1990–1993) and the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden (1993–1995).

She made further debuts in Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron in 1995 at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and in 1996 at the Salzburg Festival. She later returned to Salzburg as Eboli in Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos (1998, 2001) and as Anna in Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens (2000).

Naef maintained a long association with the Opernhaus Zürich. There she performed roles including Branghien in Frank Martin’s Le vin herbé (1997), Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera (1999), Herodias in Richard Strauss’ Salome (2000), Marfa in Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina (2002), Kundry in Richard Wagner’s Parsifal (2011), Mrs. Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff (2011), and Geneviève in Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (2016).

She appeared at the Bayreuth Festival in 1997 in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Die Walküre.

In 2000 she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlos. She also debuted at the Hamburg State Opera, appearing as Venus in Wagner’s Tannhäuser and the following year as Marina in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. In the same year she made her debut at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden as Azucena in Verdi’s Il trovatore, followed in 2003 by Gertrude in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet.

In 2004 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. She sang there a total of 38 performances until 2009, including further Wagner roles such as Fricka in Die Walküre and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, as well as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida.

She first appeared at the Opéra Bastille in 2005 as Brangäne in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, directed by Peter Sellars. Further appearances there included Don Carlos (2006), Les Troyens (2008), and Die Walküre (2010).

In addition to opera, Naef performed internationally as a concert, oratorio, and Lied singer, appearing in works such as Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder.

From 2014 she taught voice as a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Recordings (selection) Sinfoniekonzert, Gürzenich Orchestra, 2009 Messa da Requiem, Verdi, SWR Media, 2009 Gurre-Lieder, Schoenberg, Hänssler, 2007 Zaïde, Hector Berlioz, Klassik-Center Kassel, 2003 Christmas Oratorio, Bach, Universal Music, 2000 Petite messe solennelle, Gioachino Rossini, Edel, 2000 Moses und Aron, Schoenberg, Polygram, 1996