Nadja Mchantaf

Right from the beginning, music played an important role in the life of the young singer. Nadja attended a musical high school, sang in choirs from her early childhood – but her first love was ballroom dancing. The lively and endearing artist was won over by the rhythms of pop and Latino music. A love of classical music overcame the soprano fairly unexpectedly. »There is music that expresses my feelings!« she says almost coyly of her intimate, defining experience with music, when she heard Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. This work aroused in her a serious desire to embark upon a career as a singer. From then on, everything happened organically: she quickly found the right singing teacher, and later on, the right music school in Leipzig (the path of so many great composers!). Her admission into the Opera Studio of the renowned Dresdner Semperoper followed soon after, and eventually she became a member of the Ensemble. And straight after that came her position at the Komische Oper Berlin, where, with her debut in the title role of Cendrillon in Massenet’s magical adaptation of Cinderella, she won over the audiences of the capital in the blink of an eye.

In her free time, Nadja makes full use of everything Berlin has to offer, from rummaging through all the flea markets to having coffee (or grabbing a bite to eat) with friends in Mitte, or going to the open-air cinema in Volkspark Friedrichshain. A true nature lover, she is never left wanting in Berlin, because »there is a tree on every corner. And the water is never far away!« And in the middle of Berlin, Nadja can indulge in two great passions in one go: the beach and dancing – preferably right on the banks of the Spree, across from the Museumsinsel. When her little bit of free time between rehearsals and exploring the city allows it, she heads back to her family in the north – and to the sea. Away from the hustle and bustle of the big city and onto the next perfect wave, to really blow out the cobwebs on her surfboard, to make some space for music that gives voice to her emotions …

MASTERCLASSES WITH
Peter Schreier, Brigitte Eisenfeld, Franz Grundheber

CD
Richard Strauss: Elektra (Deutsche Grammophon)

IMPORTANT CONDUCTORS
Henrik Nánási, Christian Churnyn, Peter Schneider, Riccardo Frizza, Christian Thielemann, Asher Fish, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Julia Jones, Jonathan Darlington, Rainer Mühlbach

IMPORTANT DIRECTORS
Barrie Kosky, Damiano Michieletto, Tobias Kratzer, Elisabeth Stöppler, Michael Schulz, Jan Phillip Gloger, Axel Köhler, Christine Mielitz

EXCURSIONS
Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Oper Graz, Teatro La Fenice in Venedig

IMPORTANT PARTS ELSEWHERE
Adina (Der Liebestrank), Marie (Die verkaufte Braut), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Hanna Glawari and Valencienne (Die lustige Witwe), Micaëla (Carmen), Lidotschka (Moskau, Tscherjomuschki), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Musetta (La Bohème), 5. Magd (Elektra), Titelpartie in Gisela! Die denk- und merkwürdigen Wege des Glücks, Venus (King Arthur), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Servillia (La clemenza di Tito), Morgana (Alcina), Prinzessin Eudoxie (La Juive)

AT THE KOMISCHE OPER BERLIN
Titelpartien in Rusalka und Cendrillon, Tatjana (Jewgeni Onegin), Érinice (Zoroastre), Das Kind (Petruschka/L’Enfant et les Sortilèges), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Tamiri (Il re pastore), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Pamina (Die Zauberföte), Micaela (Carmen), Cendrillon (Cendrillon - Aschenputtel), Mimì (La Bohème), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Jenny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Saffi (Der »Zigeuner«baron)