Jacquelyn Wagner | ©Chris Gonz


Jacquelyn Wagner is in high demand by such prestigious opera houses and festivals as the Paris Opera, the Teatro alla Scala, the Zurich Opera House, the Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Salzburg Festival.

With her „lovely clean and focused sound“ (The New York Times), „silvery tone“, „a natural dignity and vocal command that“ make her performances „highly impressive“ (Opera News), the American soprano is enjoying resounding success in such different repertoire as Mozart, Handel, Verdi and Puccini, with a special focus on the German Fach and the iconic jugendlich-dramatische roles by Wagner, Strauss and Weber.

In the recent seasons, the artist made several house debuts: at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago as Magda in „La Rondine,“ at the Stuttgart State Opera as Contessa in „Le nozze di Figaro,“ at the Teatro Regio of Turin Donna Anna in a new production of „Don Giovanni“ (Riccardo Muti), at the Vienna State Opera as Donna Anna and at the Teatro Real as the acclaimed Arabella. She also returned to the Theater an der Wien as “Theodora” and Agathe in a new production of „Der Freischütz“ and was also seen as ‘Agathe’ at the Zurich Opera House. As ‚Oceane‘ the artist celebrated a triumphant success at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
On the concert podium, Jacquelyn Wagner has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Vasily Petrenko) in Mahler’s 8th Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, and with „Four Last Songs“ with the Madrid Radio Symphony Orchestra. Further, Mahler 8 at the Mahler Festival Leipzig (Andris Nelsons) and concertant „Fidelio“/Leonore at the Tonhalle Zurich with the Tonhalle Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, various concerts at the Elverum Music Festival and a program of Strauss songs with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra at the Bolzano Festival. With Mahler 8, soprano 1, she gave her debut at the NHK Orchestra, Tokyo under the baton of Fabio Luisi.

Further highlights of the last season led the artist, among others as Elsa in „Lohengrin“ to the Easter Festival in Salzburg (Christian Thielemann), as Arabella to the Zurich Opera House, as Rosalinde in „Die Fledermaus“ and Leonore/“Fidelio“ to Hamburg, as Salome (Director: Angela Denoke) to Innsbruck, as Alice Ford /“Falstaff“ to the Malmö Opera, as Contessa/“Le nozze di Figaro“ (Lotte de Beer) to Aix-en-Provence.
Concerts included Brahms „Ein deutsches Requiem“ at the Brucknerfest Linz with Christoph von Dohnányi, Beethoven 9 with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (Jonathan Nott).

Other performances in recent years have included. „Freischütz“ and „Arabella“ at the Zurich Opera House, „Donna Anna/“Don Giovanni“ at the Paris Opera (Philippe Jordan), Rosalinde/“Die Fledermaus“ at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role in a new production of „Alcina“ and Desdemona in „Otello“ at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the title role of „Euryanthe“ at the Theater an er Wien (Constantin Trinks) and her debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival as Eva in „Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg“ (Christian Thielemann).

A milestone in her career was her magnificent success as Arabella in a new production at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam (Marc Albrecht), a role she had previously interpreted at both the Minnesota Opera and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf (Axel Kober).

Highlights in the singer’s career also included Pamina in „Die Zauberflöte“ (Constantin Trinks) and Fiordiligi in „Così fan tutte (Philippe Jordan) at the Paris Opera, Eva in „Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg“ (Daniele Gatti) at La Scala in Milan, a concertante „Feuersnot“ at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Fiordiligi at the Semperoper, Contessa at the Hamburg State Opera, Donna Anna at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she also sang Donna Anna and Violetta in „La Traviata“.

Future projects include e.g. her role-debut as ‘Norma’ at the Festival della Valle d’Itria Martina Franca (Fabio Luisi) and will lead her with a new production of „Fidelio“ to Opera & Ballet Amsterdam to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein with her role debut as ‚Jenufa‘. Further role-debuts will be e.g. ‚Elettra’/“Idomeneo“.

Jacquelyn Wagner was born near Detroit into a musical family (her father was a horn player in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra) and studied at the Manhattan School of Music and at Oakland University of Michigan. She is a winner of numerous international competitions, including the ‚Francisco Vinas‘ International Vocal Competition, the ‚Renata Tebaldi‘ Vocal Competition and the ‚Panasonic Voice‘ Competition in New York at Alice Tully Hall.