Hailed for her exceptional expressive abilities, South African soprano Johanni van Oostrum is particularly sought after for her interpretations of works by Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, and Leoš Janáček.

Recently, she sang Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes at the Dutch National Opera to great acclaim. With the Wiener Symphoniker, she performed as a soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under the baton of Philippe Jordan. Later this season, she will sing Senta in Der fliegende Holländer with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in performances in Trondheim and Kristiansand, as well as Sieglinde in the first act of Wagner’s Die Walküre with the Orchestre National de France. As Elsa in Lohengrin, she will appear at the Semperoper Dresden, and she will sing the role of Peri in Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri in concerts in Paris and Vienna. In the summer of 2025, she will take on the role of Senta in a new production of Der fliegende Holländer at Oper im Steinbruch in St. Margarethen.

Her last season was marked by her house debut at the Paris Opera as Elsa in Lohengrin, which was met with great success. She had sung the role shortly prior at the Bavarian State Opera. She returned to both Munich and Paris for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, performing with the Bavarian State Orchestra under the baton of Kirill Petrenko and with the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Harding, respectively. She sang Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the Teatro Regio Torino under Nathalie Stutzmann and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia under Vasily Petrenko. In the title role of Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka, she was celebrated at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Tokyo Spring Festival with Marek Janowski. She was heard as Chrysothemis in Elektra under the baton of Kent Nagano in Hamburg and as Elsa in Kornél Mundruczó’s new production of Lohengrin under François-Xavier Roth at the Bavarian State Opera. This role also took her to the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Tokyo Spring Festival 2022, the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden, and other venues.

She reprised Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Semperoper Dresden, a role she had previously sung at the Barbican Centre in London, at BOZAR in Brussels, in Aix-en-Provence, Luxembourg, the Theater an der Wien, the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. She can also be heard as Agathe on CD and DVD, released by Warner Classics and Erato.

She has sung the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier—a signature role of hers—at the Vienna State Opera under Philippe Jordan, the Dutch National Opera under Sir Simon Rattle, the Royal Swedish Opera under Alan Gilbert, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Weimar National Theatre, and the Estonian National Opera.

Further highlights include Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at Opéra de Lyon, the eponymous role in Strauss’ Salome, and Grete in Schreker’s Der ferne Klang at Oper Graz, Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio conducted by Adam Fischer, Janáček’s Jenůfa in Bern, and Marietta in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt with Opéra de Limoges. She sang Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro in Munich and Janáček’s Katya Kabanova at the Janáček Festival in Brno and Wiesbaden, where she also sang Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes.

On the concert stage, Johanni van Oostrum performed with Jonas Kaufmann on his concert tour Mein Wien in Nuremberg, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf. In numerous appearances with the Staatskapelle Weimar, she interpreted Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Ah! Perfido under the baton of Bertrand de Billy, as well as Strauss’ Four Last Songs in Bayreuth and at the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut. As a concert soloist, she can be heard regularly in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Elijah, Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony, Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, as well as interpreting songs by Richard Strauss and South African composers.

She has worked with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bertrand de Billy, Asher Fisch, Antonello Manacorda, Oksana Lyniv, Laurence Equilbey, Lothar Koenigs, Henrik Nánási, Stefan Soltesz, and directors such as Harry Kupfer, Barrie Kosky, Tobias Kratzer, François Girard, Kirill Serebrennikov, and Vera Nemirova.

She received first prize at the Erna Spoorenberg Dutch Vocal Competition and was awarded the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best Female Performance in 2018.