The soprano Christine Schäfer is one of the most successful singers of the present day thanks to her performances on international opera and concert stages. The wide-ranging repertoire of her guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses extends from Handel’s Alcina and Partenope to Mozart’s Donna Anna, Cherubino and Konstanze, from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Verdi’s Gilda and Violetta to Strauss´ Sophie and Berg’s Lulu.

Christine Schäfer studied under Arléen Auger, Aribert Reimann, Sena Jurinac and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, among others, and received a number of prizes for her participation in major competitions. 

In addition to opera, from an early stage Christine Schäfer made concert appearances a focus of her career. The conductors with whom she has worked in performing at the world’s leading centres of music include Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Andrew Davis, Leopold Hager, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann and Helmut Rilling. Among the orchestras that have partnered her are the Berlin, Vienna and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles Symphony Orchestras. Alongside the classical repertoire she is particularly interested in works of the Baroque period and the 20th century as well as contemporary music.

Her remarkable standing as a singer of lieder is demonstrated by the outstanding calibre of her accompanists – names such as Irvin Gage, Graham Johnson, Eric Schneider, Helène Grimaud, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christoph Eschenbach, Ingo Metzmacher and Daniel Barenboim. 

Christine Schäfer’s numerous recordings include Haydn’s Creation, conducted by Helmut Rilling; Aribert Reimann’s Nachtträume and Kinderlieder; the St John Passion with the Stuttgart boys’ choir Hymnus; and Mozart’s Canzonettas with the wind ensemble of the  Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. In a complete recording of Il Seraglio she sang the part of Konstanze (Les Arts Florissants/Christie). Lieder by Strauss and arias by Mozart (Berlin Philharmonic/Abbado/DG) are represented in her recorded work, as is Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with Pierre Boulez as conductor. In the recordings of the complete works of Schubert, Schumann and Brahms on the Hyperion label initiated by Graham Johnson, Christine Schäfer was involved in one CD for each composer. 

For the Onyx label she has made recordings of Schubert’s Winterreise and the album Oder soll es Tod bedeuten? accompanied by the Petersen Quartet with lieder by Mendelssohn and Schumann in adaptations by Aribert Reimann, as well as songs by Purcell and George Crumb under the title Apparition. With Matthias Goerne and Hilary Hahn she recorded the album Bach: Violin and Voice, which was released in 2010. In 2011 her latest album will be released by Sony Classical. Her debut on this label includes arias from Handel to Messiaen.

In 2007 Christine Schäfer was voted “Female Singer of the Year” by Opernwelt and received the Echo Klassik award for the best recording of lieder. In 2008 she was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2009 was elected a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts. 

Christine Schäfer’s opera highlights of recent years include Violetta in Marthaler’s controversial new production of La Traviata at the Palais Garnier in Paris, her performances at the Met in Hansel and Gretel, as Sophie in Rosenkavalier and as Gilda in Rigoletto, as well as a first venture into the works of Rossini in David Alden’s new Il Turco in Italia and the role of Konstanze in Il Seraglio, conducted by Philippe Jordan, both at the Staatsoper in Berlin. In 2009 she made her opera debut in Vienna as Handel’s Partenope in a new production at the historic Theater an der Wien, under Christoph Rousset. Viennese opera-goers will be able to hear her there again as Ophelia (Hamlet) in 2012. 

Christine Schäfer is appearing at many festivals in summer 2011 – for example at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic and Franz Welser-Möst, and at the Lucerne  Festival with Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. As part of the Kunstfest Weimar she is holding an evening of lieder with Pierre-Laurent Aimard in September and in October a further one with Daniel Barenboim. More concerts in the coming season will take her to Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp and Madrid, among other places, and she will sing in three operas altogether (La Traviata, Il Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro) at the Staatsoper in Berlin.  


Christine Schaefer