The German soprano Ricarda Merbeth is one of the leading singers in her field and is in demand worldwide as an interpreter of Wagner and Strauss. After studying at the “Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Academy of Music in Leipzig, she began her career in Magdeburg and Weimar. In 1999, she made her debut as Marzelline in Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera and was a member of the ensemble until 2005, singing Contessa, Donna Anna, Pamina, Fiordiligi, Chrysothemis, Elisabeth, Eva, Irene, Elsa, Marschallin and Sieglinde, among others. Her international breakthrough came in 2004 with the role of Daphne by Richard Strauss. The artist is still associated with the Vienna State Opera today through regular guest engagements, in 2001 she was honoured with the Eberhard Waechter Medal and in 2010 she was appointed Austrian Kammersängerin. Further milestones in her career during this time were engagements at the Bayreuth Festival: in 2000 in the Jürgen Flimm Ring as Freia and Gutrune, from 2002 to 2005 and 2007 as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and from 2013 to 2018 she sang the role of Senta in the production Der fliegende Holländer.

Freelance since 2006, she now appears at leading opera houses, including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Bayreuth Festival, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera, La Scala Milan, Opera Nationale de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu, La Monnaie in Brussels, Sydney Opera House. She sings all the important roles in her repertoire: Brünnhilde (Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung), Isolde, Senta, Kundry, Ortrud, Elsa, Elisabeth and Venus (Tannhäuser), Dyer, Elektra (Elektra), Helena (Ägyptische Helena), Salome, Ariadne, Marschallin, Turandot and Leonore (Fidelio).

She has worked with the conductors Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Frank Beermann, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-whun Chung, Christoph von Dohnányi, Dan Ettinger, Daniele Gatti, Edward Gardner, Thomas Guggeis, Marek Janowski, Mariss Jansons, Philippe Jordan, Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Kirill Petrenko, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Donald Runnicles, Pinchas Steinberg, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst.

The following directors accompany her career: Daniele Abbado, Philippe Arlaud, Sven-Eric Bechtholf, Calixto Bieto, Nicolas Brieger, Robert Carsen, Luigi De Angelis, Michael Fau, Jürgen Flimm, Kasper Holten, Nicolas Joel, Günter Krämer, Marco Arturo Marelli, Mario Martone, Alex Ollé, Charles Roubaud, Otto Schenk, Matthias von Stegmann, Achim Thorwald, Katharina Wagner, Krzysztof Warlikowski. Her current most important roles, including Isolde, Brünnhilden, Senta, Elektra, The Dyer’s wife, Ortrud, Turandot she has been developed over the last few years in terms of vocal technique and interpretation together with Prof. Ks. Wolfgang Millgramm in Berlin.

Important debuts since 2016: Isolde at the Hamburg State Opera, Turandot and Brünnhilde / Siegfried at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Elektra at La Scala in Milan and at the Berlin State Opera. She also sang the title role in Die ägyptische Helena at La Scala in Milan in 2019. In 2020, she sang Brünnhilde / Die Walküre in Lisbon and Madrid, Senta at the Berlin State Opera and Elektra at the Vienna State Opera. In 2022 and 2023 she sang Brünnhilde / Götterdämmerung at the Teatro Real de Madrid, Turandot at the Spring Festival in Tokyo, the title role in Elektra at the Berlin State Opera, Ortrud in Bologna, Kundry with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Isolde in Valencia and Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle at the Semperoper Dresden and at the Vienna State Opera. In 2023, she sang Senta at the Baltic Opera Festival and at the Hamburg State Opera as well and Elektra again at the Berlin and Vienna State Operas. Major roles are also on the calendar for 2024/2025: The Dyer’s wife / Frau ohne Schatten at the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse, Gurrelieder at the Sydney Opera House, Elektra at the Leipzig Opera House, Brünnhilde / Ring cycle at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Staatskapelle in Dresden, Elektra and Salome at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Isolde at the Deutsche Oper.