Claudia Mahnke has become one of the most important mezzosopranos due to her Brangäne and Fricka at Bayreuth Festival, Judith in Bartok‘s Bluebeard’s Castle at Staatsoper Hamburg and Didon in Les Troyens at Oper Frankfurt in the recent seaosns. Her engagements in ²⁰¹⁷⁄₁₈ include Kundry in a new new production of Parsifal at Staatsoper Hamburg, Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle at Oper Frankfurt, where she will appear as well as Selika in Meyerbeer‘s L‘ Africaine and Fricka in Rheingold. At Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden she will sing Iokaste in Strawinsky‘s Oedipus Rex. Concert engagements will bring her to National Youth Orchestra, where she will perform Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle and to Lausanne, where she will appear in Mahler’s Lied von der Erde with Simone Young conducting.

In the season ²⁰¹⁶⁄₁₇ she performed at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and at the Staatsoper Hamburg in Bluebeard’s Castle, which she will also perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In autumn 2015 she gave concerts in Tokio (Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra) and was a guest performer at the Stuttgart Opera, singing the role of Herodias in Salome. In summer 2013 Claudia Mahnke made her debut in Bayreuth under Kirill Petrenko in the new Ring (Fricka/Rheingold, Fricka/Walküre, Waltraute/Walküre, Waltraute/Götterdämmerung, 2. Norn/Götterdämmerung).

In addition to her commitment at the Stuttgart State Opera Claudia Mahnke gave many guest performances, as for instance at the Komische Oper Berlin (Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos), at the San Francisco Opera (Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Komponist), at the Opera National de Lyon (Dorabella), in Seoul with the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Cherubino), at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (Le Prince Charmant in Cendrillon), at the Aalto Theater in Essen and the Cologne Opera (Octavian), at the Ruhrtriennale under Kirill Petrenko (Brangäne), at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (Palestrina, I Puritani), at the Teatro Real Madrid (Adriano in Rienzi) and in autumn 2014 at LA Opera as Judith in Herzog Blaubarts Burg.

Since the beginning of the ²⁰⁰⁶⁄₂₀₀₇ season she has been a member of the Frankfurt Opera, where she performed, amongst other roles, the part of Magdalena (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Charlotte (Werther), Bianca (Florentinische Tragödie), Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), Conception (L’heure espagnole), Cherubino, Silla (Palestrina), Miranda (The Tempest/Ades), Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), Giulietta (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Judith (Herzog Blaubarts Burg), Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust/Berlioz), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Waltraute and 2. Norn (Götterdämmerung), Blanche (The Gambler by Prokofiev), Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos), Kundry (Parsifal) and Mrs. Meg Page (Falstaff).

From 1996 to 2006 she was ensemble member of Stuttgart State Opera, where she developed a broad repertoire. She sang the title role in Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus in Stuttgart and at the Munich Opera Festival 2005 and celebrated a personal success. Her interpretation of Simplicius Simplicissimus brought her several nominations for “Singer of the Year” in the “opera world”. In August 2006 Claudia Mahnke was appointed “Kammersängerin” of the Stuttgart State Opera.

Claudia Mahnke also has a wide concert repertoire, including Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Penderecki’s Credo and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (under Helmuth Rilling), Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder (under Lothar Zagrosek and under Markus Stenz with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne), Mahler’s Lied von der Erde (with the International Bach Academy in Stuttgart), Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (under Manfred Honeck and Nicola Luisotti), Beethoven’s Mass in C major and Bruckner’s Mass in F minor (under Fabio Luisi), Haydn’s Paukenmesse and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (under Yun Märkl and Helmuth Rilling), Bruckner’s Mass in F minor (under Herbert Blomstedt with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) and Bruckner’s Te Deum (under Simone Young in Madrid).

The German mezzosoprano Claudia Mahnke studied singing with Prof. Heidi Petzold at the Academy of Music in Dresden.