In the 2024/25 season, Annika Schlicht will make her U.S. Debut, starting with Gustav Mahler’s DAS LIED VON DER ERDE and a song recital at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. This will be followed by a performance of Mahler’s DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival. She will then debut at San Francisco Opera as Brangäne in a new production of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE and the Alto Soloist in Beethoven’s IX. Symphony.
In the concert realm, she will interpret Szymanowski’s STABAT MATER and the title heroine in Frano Parac’s opera JUDITA with the Munich Radio Orchestra and perform Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Staatskapelle Weimar. Additionally, she will portray Waltraute in a new production of GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG at the Theater Dortmund.
At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, she will be singing Brangäne/TRISTAN UND ISOLDE and Magdalene/DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG and will make her debut as CARMEN.
In the summer of 2023, Annika Schlicht returned to the SALZBURG FESTIVAL with Klangforum Wien for two concerts.
Following this, the mezzo-soprano was invited by Kent Nagano to record the role of Fricka in Richard Wagner’s DAS RHEINGOLD with Concerto Köln, in a historically informed performance practice. In August 2023, she undertook a tour with concerts in Cologne, Lucerne, and Ravello.
Also, in 2023 she made a successful debut as Brangäne in a new production of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Staatstheater Cottbus and debuted in the 2023/24 season as Frugola, Zita, and Principessa in a new production of IL TRITTICO at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Additional roles at her main house included Fricka in DAS RHEINGOLD and DIE WALKÜRE, Waltraute in GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, and the Alto and Mezzo-soprano solo in a staged MATTHÄUSPASSION and the VERDI REQUIEM, the latter in collaboration with the Staatsballett Berlin.
Born in Stuttgart, Annika Schlicht studied at the „Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler“ Berlin with professor Renate Faltin.
In 2015/16, she joined the Deutsche Oper Berlin as a member of the ensemble.
In past seasons, she appeared as Fricka in RHEINGOLD and WALKÜRE as well as Waltraute in GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG in a new RING CYCLE directed by Stefan Herheim. This RING CYCLE was released on DVD by NAXOS.
As Fricka in RHEINGOLD, Annika returned to the Bregenz Festival and made her house debut with WALKÜRE at Stuttgart State Opera.
Annika Schlicht has already performed numerous roles such as Fenena/NABUCCO, Adriano/RIENZI, Mrs Quickly/FALSTAFF, Prince Orlovsky/DIE FLEDERMAUS, Magdalene MEISTERSINGER OF NUREMBERG, Hansel/HANSEL AND GRETEL, Olga/EUGENE ONEGIN, Dorabella/COSI FAN TUTTE, Marchesa Melibea/VIAGGIO A REIMS, Maddalena/RIGOLETTO, Auntie /PETER GRIMES, Siegrune/WALKÜRE as well as Flosshilde in DAS RHEINGOLD and GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG.
Due to an acclaimed Auntie/PETER GRIMES at the Bergen International Festival in 2017, she was reinvited to make her debut as Sesto in LA CLEMENZA DI TITO at the Bergen National Opera in 2020.
Most recent guest engagements have taken her to the Royal Opera Houses of London and Muscat, Frankfurt Opera, the Hamburg State Opera and Elbphilharmonie, the Bavarian State Opera, the Opèra de Paris, the Semperoper Dresden, the Berlin State Opera and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf.
While still a student, Annika Schlicht was engaged on a scholarship from the Liz Mohn Foundation for Culture and Music at the International Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and debuted in the seasons 2013/14 and 2014/15 in various smaller and medium roles.
Master classes with Julia Varady and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Deborah Polaski, Patricia McCaffrey and Brigitte Fassbaender, who is still a mentor of the singer, have had a deep effect upon the young artist. She is the recipient of the Richard Wagner Association scholarship and has won prizes at numerous competitions.
In 2014, Annika Schlicht joined the Salzburg Festivals Young Singers Project and made her Festival Debut as Angelina in a children’s version of Rossini’s LA CENERENTOLA and in the world premiere of Marc-André Dalbavie’s CHARLOTTE SALOMON. That same summer, she was invited by the eminent Brigitte Fassbaender to present the Lieder matinee at the “Eppaner Liedsommer” featuring works by Richard Strauss. Since then, Brigitte Fassbaender has been mentoring the singer.
Annika Schlicht’s extensive operatic work is supplemented regularly by her appearances in concerts and as a Lieder singer. Gustav Mahler’s DAS LIED VON DER ERDE in Klagenfurt and Pordenone and his III. Symphony in Dresden, Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in Poland, Giuseppe Verdi‘s MESSA DA REQUIEM in Essen, Ludwig van Beethoven‘s IX. SYMPHONIE in Brussels Berlin and Antwerp, Johannes Brahms‘ ALT-RHAPSODIE, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s STABAT MATER, Johann Sebastian Bach’s CHRISTMAS ORATORIO, Richard Wagner’s WESENDONCK LIEDER, Antonio Vivaldi’s GLORIA, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s REQUIEM in Riga, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s SAINT PAUL and ELIJAH, Lili Boulanger’s AU FOND DE L’ABÎME in Munich as well as Igor Kuljerić‘s GLAGOLITIC REQUIEM in Zagreb are just a few highlights from her repertoire to date.
She has worked with such celebrated conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Sir Donald Runnicles, Ivan Repušić, John Fiore, Alondra de la Parra, Enrique Mazzola, Asher Fisch, Edward Gardner, Stéphane Denève , Kent Nagano, Alexander Soddy, Ulf Schirmer, Axel Kober, Ingo Metzmacher, Christopher Moulds, Stefan Soltesz, Sebastian Weigle and directors Harry Kupfer, Hans Neuenfels, Stefan Herheim, Luc Bondy, Claus Guth, Jossi Wieler, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Johannes Erath and sung with the Staatskapelle Berlin, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, with the Wiener Symphoniker, the Brussels Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresden Philarmonic, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic and the Ensemble Modern.
She sang Wagner’s WESENDONCK LIEDER with the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles at the Ravello Festival in the summer of 2018.
To mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, Annika Schlicht was engaged by the UNESCO World Orchestra for Peace as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
