Christa Mayer

Matthias Creutziger

Christa Mayer studied singing at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich. She attended the class of Lied interpretation with Helmut Deutsch and the opera course. She was a prize winner in several competitions, such as the ARD International Music Competition.

Starting during the 2001/2002 season, Christa Mayer has been an ensemble member of the Saxon State Opera in Dresden, where she has performed Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Fenena in Nabucco, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Fabio Luisi, Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff with Daniele Gatti, Baba in The Rake’s Progress, and Adelaide in Arabella with Peter Schneider.

She was engaged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, as well as at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 2006, she performed Erda (Das Rheingold) in the Ring Cycle at the Semperoper Dresden under the baton of Fabio Luisi and debuted as Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. She also sung Erda in the Ring Cycle in Valencia and Florence with Zubin Mehta in 2007. In 2008, Christa Mayer made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Erda and Waltraute, and was re-invited for the 2009 and the 2010 editions of the festival.

In Dresden she sang Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Gaea in Dresden’s new production of Daphne and Erda / Waltraute in the Ring (2010). As Cornelia she was also invited to Düsseldorf, and at the Hamburg State Opera she sang Quickly (Falstaff) and Erda.

Christa Mayer is also a successful concert singer and has performed across Europe in numerous projects, such as J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Helmuth Rilling, Mozart’s Requiem at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Beethoven’s Mass in C major at the São Carlos Theatre in Lisbon, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Bamberger Symphoniker, Bach’s Mass in B minor at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden, Handel’s Messiah at the Konzerthaus Berlin, and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder at the Septembre Musical in Montreux.

Further engagements include Brangäne in Bayreuth 2015, Fricka (Ring) in Dresden, Gräfin (Mathis der Maler) under Simone Young, Erda at the New National Theatre Tokio as well as Emilia (Otello) and Missa Solemnis under Christian Thielemann at the Easter-Festival in Salzburg 2016.