Acclaimed on some of the world’s most prestigious operatic stages - including the Bayreuth Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Glyndebourne Festival, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Theater an der Wien, and the Semperoper Dresden - German soprano Dorothea Herbert has established herself as a compelling interpreter of leading roles in the works of Strauss, Wagner, Beethoven, and Weber.

 

The 2025/26 season marks an exciting new chapter in her career. It opens with Wagner’s Die Walküre in a staged production by Vincent Huguet at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, conducted by Daniel Harding. Further highlights include Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the Opéra de Toulon, her debut at Teatro La Fenice as Elsa in Lohengrin in a new production by Damiano Michieletto, and her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munchen in a new production of Die Walküre, directed by Tobias Kratzer and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

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Dorothea opened the 2024/25 season with Strauss's Four Last Songs, performing with the Stuttgart Philharmonic under Andrey Boreyko at the Festival international de musique de Besançon, and subsequently at the Staatstheater Meiningen under Killian Farrell. She reprised her acclaimed Elsa in Lohengrin at Theater Bremen and returned to the role of Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at both Staatstheater Wiesbaden and Landestheater Linz. In the summer, she returned to the Bayreuth Festival as Helmwige in Die Walküre and made her debut as the Third Norn in Götterdämmerung. She also appeared as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser in the Kinderoper at the Bayreuth Festival.

 

Highlights of the 2023/24 season included her return to Karlsruhe in the title role of Rusalka, which she also performed at Theater Freiburg, a new production of Salome at Staatstheater Braunschweig, and a new Lohengrin at Theater Hagen. That season also marked her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker at both the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Berliner Philharmonie, singing Elektra under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. At the Bayreuth Festival, she made her debut as Helmwige inDie Walküre, conducted by Simone Young.

 

Among her many notable recent engagements are her debut at Theater an der Wien in Christof Loy’s new production of Zazà as Floriana and La Signora Dufresne; Fidelio at the Glyndebourne Festival; Elsa in Lohengrin at Staatstheater Darmstadt; Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Nationaltheater Mannheim; Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater Kassel, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, and the Semperoper Dresden; Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the State Opera Prague; Salome at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck; and Die Walküre at the Dutch National Opera under the direction of Marc Albrecht.

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updated: January 2026

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