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The Austrian coloratura soprano, Vanessa Waldhart, came in touch with music quiet early (singing, piano, piano trio, ballet). While attending classes in high school she started studying Singing at the Tyrolean Conservatory and graduated her Bachelor of Arts (2014-2017) and Master of Arts (2021) degrees at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien with distinction. Master-classes with Kammersängerin Christa Ludwig, Kammersängerin Brigitte Fassbaender, Magreet Honig and Kammersängerin Edita Gruberová complete her studies. She also worked with Krassimira Stoyanova and is currently working with Kammersängerin Romelia Lichtenstein and Nelly Miricioiu.
Among others Vanessa Waldhart won 1st Prize (2nd section) at the 21. International Ferruccio Tagliavini singing competition and also received the "Dame Joan Sutherland"-Prize as best Soprano of the whole competition. In 2016 she also became 1st Prize Winner at "Musica Juventutis" and got an invitation for a Lieder recital at the Konzerthaus Vienna in May 2017. She is 1st Prize Winner at the singing competition of “Schlossoper Haldenstein” 2017, won the Gold Prize of “Manhattan Int. Music Competition, Voice” 2018, was finalist of “Online Vocal Competition” 2021 (Opera Tools) and is prize-winner at the “Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg” 2022. Beside that she is a scholarship winner of FOHN-Foundation Vienna 2015 and Feiling-Foundation 2016 and got the SYLFF-Fellowship of the Tokyo-Foundation for her distinguished accomplishments. In 2023 she was finalist in the singing competition “Concorso Lirico Internazionale Portofino” where she got the Award of the Beckwith-Foundation and the Eva Kleinitz Award from Dominque Meyer as head of the international jury. In 2022 she was nominated as “Newcomer of the Year” in Opernwelt for her singing and acting performance.
During her studies Vanessa Waldhart debuted as Blonde in Anthony Pilavachi’s production of W.A. Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail at Schlossoper Haldenstein (Switzerland), as well as Zerlina in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn in Vienna. The soprano got her first permanent engagement at the Halle Opera, where she made her debut as Bastienne in Tobias Kratzer’s production of W.A. Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne and is a fixed member of the ensemble since 2018-2019 there.
In 2019 Vanessa Waldhart made her critically acclaimed debut at the Int. Handel Festival Halle as Cleopatra (»Julius Caesar in Ägypten«) directed by Peter Konwitschny. In 2021 she appeared as Agilea (»Teseo«) there. In 2022 and 2023 she sang Daughter Zion in a scenic production of »Brockes Passion, HWV 48« by Walter Sutcliffe, Dorinda in »Orlando« under baton of Christian Curnyn and Atalanta in »Serse« under baton of Attilio Cremonesi again at Int. Handel Festival Halle. In 2025 she will give her role debut as Poppea in »Agrippina« there.
Her repertoire includes a.o. roles like Olympia in Offenbach’s Contes d’Hoffmann, Adele in Strauß‘ Fledermaus, Rosina in Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia, Fiakermilli in Strauss’ Arabella at Aalto-Theater Essen, Konstanze in W.A. Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail at Chamber Opera Schloss Rheinsberg, Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Ännchen in Weber's Der Freischütz at Goethe-Theater Bad Lauchstädt, Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Titania in Benjamin Britten's Midsummer Night’s Dream at Oper Halle, Vitellia in a concert version of Gluck's La clemenza di Tito at Int. Gluck Festival and Drusilla and Amore in Monteverdi's Incoronazione di Poppea at the Grange Festival in England. She sang the role of the Queen of the Night in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Edda Moser’s “Festival of the German Language” at the Goethe Theater in Bad Lauchstädt, at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn Vienna, at the National Theater in Sarajevo, at the Theater Chemnitz and at the Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin and will sing it in season 2024-2025 at Oper Halle too.
Vanessa Waldhart has worked with conductors such as René Jacobs, Attilio Cremonesi, Ariane Matiakh, Michael Hofstetter, Christian Curnyn, Philippe Bach, David Bates, Michael Francis, Guido Mancusi, Christoph-Mathias Mueller, Christoph U. Meier, Peter Marschik, Peter Christian Feigel, Werner Ehrhardt, Alessandro Bonato, Michael Wendeberg, Fabrice Bollon and José Miguel Esandi as well as with directors like Tobias Kratzer, Anthony Pilavachi, Peter Konwitschny, Isabel Ostermann, Martin G. Berger, Leonard Prinsloo, Beverly Blankenship, Igor Folwill, Patric Seibert-Wolf, Georg Quander, Walter Sutcliffe and Louisa Proske.
In addition to the opera Vanessa Waldhart also sings recitals and concerts: With Carl Orff's Carmina Burana she made her debut in the Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein, at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam and in Innsbruck (Tyrol). She gave a recital in the Wiener Konzerthaus and sang the soprano solo in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat mater, George Frideric Handel's Il delirio amoroso and Apollo e Dafne, J.S. Bach's Magnificat in D major BWV 243», as well as W.A. Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and Requiem. Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 took her to Switzerland and she sang Eva in Haydn's Creation at concerts in North and South Tyrol. With G.F. Handel's Messiah she could be heard as Soprano solo in February 2024 in Halle (Saale). |
