Sophie Koch

Widely celebrated as Octavian, the French mezzo-soprano has performed this role with great success in BadenBaden, Vienna, London, Paris, Barcelona, Dresden, Munich, and at the 2014 and 2015 Salzburg Festival. Later this season Koch will reprise her Octavian at La Scala and also portray Venus/Tannhäuser at Covent Garden. Equally renowned as Strauss’s Composer (Baden-Baden-DVD, Vienna, Paris, Dresden, Munich), Koch has also won acclaim in roles as stylistically diverse as Massenet’s Cléopâtre (Paris, Salzburg), Bellini’s Adalgisa (Paris, Nice), Mother Marie/Dialogues des Carmélites (London, Paris, Nice), Selika/L’africaine (Berlin), and Adriano/Rienzi (Salzburg). Other successes in her repertory include Genièvre/King Arthur, Marguerite/La Damnation de Faust, the title role/Alceste, and Giulietta/ Les contes d’Hoffmann (all in Paris), as well as Wagner’s Fricka (Paris), Brangäne (Covent Garden, BBC Proms, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival), and Waltraute (Paris). Since her 2005 role debut as Massenet’s Charlotte in Berlin, the mezzo-soprano has been closely associated with Werther, a triumph for her on CD and in Paris (DVD), Munich, London, Madrid, Vienna, Brussels, and in her recent Metropolitan Opera debut. Her varied discography includes solo discs of German and French art songs, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and the world premiere of Laurent Petitgirard’s opera The Elephant Man. On DVD she starts opposite Renée Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier and Ariadne auf Naxos (both in Baden-Baden), and opposite Jonas Kaufmann in Werther (Opéra National de Paris).

Previously at Lyric Opera: Octavian/ Der Rosenkavalier (2015|16); Charlotte/Werther (2012-13).

Last updated: February 8, 2016