Susan Maclean

The American mezzo-soprano Susan Maclean studied acting and singing at the University of Minnesota. She received her first engagements in the USA. In 1985 she came to Europe to the Zurich Opera House. After working at the Bielefeld Theatre, the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, the National Theatre Mannheim and the Leipzig Opera, she moved to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 2010. Her repertoire includes the Wagner roles Ortrud ("Lohengrin"), Venus ("Tannhäuser"), Brangäne ("Tristan und Isolde"), Fricka, Erda and Waltraute ("Der Ring des Nibelungen"), Verdi's Amneris ("Aida") and Eboli ("Don Carlos"), Didon (Berlioz "Les Troyens"), Princess (Puccini "Suor Angelica"), as well as the R. Strauss roles Amme ("Die Frau ohne Schatten"), Annina ("Der Rosenkavalier") and Adelaide ("Arabella") as well as Marie (Berg "Wozzeck"), Baba the Turk (Stravinsky "The Rake's Progress"), Wirtin/ Abbess (Prokofiev "The Fiery Angel") and Gertrud (Humperdinck "Hänsel und Gretel"). Guest engagements have taken her to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Semperoper Dresden, Lille, Barcelona, Strasbourg, Luxembourg and others. From 2010 to 2012 she was engaged as Kundry at the Bayreuth Festival. She also celebrated great successes in Wolfgang Rihm's "Das Gehege" in Amsterdam and as Kundry and Geneviève (Debussy "Pelléas et Mélisande") in Antwerp. Her most recent stage appearances at Deutsche Oper am Rhein include the main role in Diana Syrse's "Der Kiosk", as Erda, Schwertleite (Wagner's "Die Walküre"), Die öffentliche Meinung (Offenbach's "Orpheus in der Unterwelt") and Alleinstehende (Bach's "Weihnachtsoratorium - Szenen einer schlaflosen Nacht"). In the 2022/23 season Susan Maclean will take on the roles of Erda, 3rd Lady (Mozart "The Magic Flute"), Marcellina (Mozart "Le nozze di Figaro") and Mary (Wagner "Der fliegende Holländer").