Martina Welschenbach

The young dramatic soprano Martina Welschenbach captivates with her charismatic youthful appearance and a voice of extraordinary radiance. Her artistic focus is on the great German roles of Wagner, Strauss and Korngold, as well as the lyrical repertoire from Mozart to Puccini. One of her signature roles is Senta in Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, a role that has become one of her artistic hallmarks.

She regularly works with distinguished conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Fedosejev, Cornelius Meister, Ingo Metzmacher, Carlo Rizzi, Sir Donald Runnicles, Nello Santi, Franz Welser-Möst, Jonathan Nott and Sir Simon Rattle, as well as renowned directors including Claus Michael Gruber, Jens-Daniel Herzog, Philipp Stölzl, Martin Kušej, Carlo Lievi, Christof Loy and David Pountney.

For the first time, Martina Welschenbach will appear at the Bayreuther Festspiele in 2026 as Gerhilde in Die Walküre under Christian Thielemann, as part of the AI Ring. At the beginning of the 2026/27 season, she returns to Oper Leipzig as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer for the revival performances and makes her debut at the Semperoper Dresden as Marianne Leitmetzerin in Der Rosenkavalier. In the concert field, she will perform Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in Gütersloh, continuing her successful collaboration at the IMAD Festival in Paderborn, where she performed Rossini’s Stabat Mater last year.

In the past 2025/26 season, she returned once again to Oper Leipzig in her signature role of Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, as well as to Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang Freia in Das Rheingold and Helmwige in Die Walküre in the Ring cycle.

Highlights of recent seasons include her debut in Kurt Weill’s Der Protagonist at Gran Teatro La Fenice (Teatro Malibran) under the musical direction of Markus Stenz; Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) at Oper Leipzig in the premiere cast under Christoph Gedschold; Elsa (Lohengrin) at Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Asher Fisch; and Sieglinde (Walküre) at Stadttheater Klagenfurt under Nicholas Milton. Another significant milestone was her debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Regina in Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler under Christoph Eschenbach. Further role debuts included the Marschallin (Rosenkavalier) and Leonore (Fidelio) at Theater Bonn, as well as the title role in Alban Berg’s Lulu at Wuppertaler Bühnen.

Martina Welschenbach has a close artistic connection with Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she was a permanent ensemble member and, over the years, developed into a sought-after young dramatic soprano. Her journey there took her from roles such as Musetta (La bohème), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Micaëla (Carmen) and Liù (Turandot) to Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Irene (Rienzi) and Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg).

Highlights of her concert work include Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz and the MDR-Rundfunkchor; Richard Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder at the Festival Anima Mundi in Pisa; and Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie under Stefan Blunier with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. Further significant concert engagements took her to the Wiener Konzerthaus as Thekla in Jaromír Weinberger’s Wallenstein under Cornelius Meister, documented in a CD recording, as well as to the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom she performed Claude Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue under Sir Donald Runnicles.

Martina Welschenbach studied at the Hochschule für Musik Stuttgart, the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal College of Music in London. She subsequently became a member of the International Opera Studio of the Opernhaus Zürich and was then taken into the ensemble. She later moved to Deutsche Oper Berlin.