Katharina Ruckgaber

Born in

Munich/Germany

Education

• University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (KS Prof. Andreas Schmidt)
• Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding
• Opera studio of Oper Frankfurt

Engagements

• Oper Frankfurt
• Theater an der Wien
• Zurich Opera House
• Theater Freiburg
• Gärtnerplatztheater München
• Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
• Staatstheater Darmstadt
• Bregenz Festival
• Händelfestspiele Karlsruhe
• mdr Symphonieorchester
• Bamberger Symphoniker
• Wigmore Hall
• Konzerthaus Wien
• Saint Petersburg Philharmonia
• Oxford Lieder Festival
• Clàssicand Festival Andorra

Important Roles

• The Magic FlutePamina
• Le nozze di FigaroSusanna
• Don GiovanniZerlina
• Pelléas et MélisandeMélisande
• Il trionfo del tempo e del disingannoBellezza
• The MarksmanÄnnchen
• La BohèmeMusetta
• The BatAdele
• TeseoClizia

Website

The Munich-born soprano Katharina Ruckgaber will appear in the 2025/26 season at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Ghent and Antwerp in a new production of Don Giovanni under Francesco Corti and at the Hessisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe as Zerlina.
Further engagements include New Year’s concerts with Viennese operetta highlights in Thessaloniki, Vienna, and at the Attergau Festival, as well as a baroque opera by George Frideric Handel. Her interpretation of Ännchen in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the 2024 and 2025 Bregenz Festival earned her a nomination for the 2025 Austrian Music Theater Award.

In the 2024/25 season, she enjoyed great success as Beppi in Gerd Kühr’s Stallerhof at Stadttheater Klagenfurt, made her Canadian debut with acclaimed New Year’s operetta concerts, and stepped in on short notice as Musetta (La Bohème) at Komische Oper Berlin.

She has celebrated numerous house debuts as Asteria in Handel’s Tamerlano under René Jacobs at Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía Valencia, and the Berlin Philharmonie. Other highlights included Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at Nationaltheater Mannheim, Bellezza (Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno) at the Festival ClassicAnd in Andorra, and her debut as Galatea (Acis and Galatea) with the Kammerakademie Potsdam. Concert engagements have taken her to the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Berlin Philharmonie, and to Bilbao with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra.

Katharina Ruckgaber has also appeared at Oper Zürich, Theater an der Wien, Staatstheater Darmstadt, and Gärtnerplatztheater Munich. She has performed with the Orchestre National de France, MDR Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Berlin under Iván Fischer, Gewandhaus Leipzig, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Moscow, Cologne Philharmonie, and repeatedly at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg – most recently as Ännchen in René Jacobs’ acclaimed Freischütz tour with the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Immediately after graduating, she joined the Opera Studio of Oper Frankfurt and was subsequently a member of the Theater Freiburg ensemble until 2023, where she appeared in major roles including Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Vixen Sharp-Ears (The Cunning Little Vixen), Musetta (La Bohème), and Nanetta (Falstaff). Her Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) was hailed as a “season highlight” (nmz/Der neue Merker).

A passionate recitalist, she collaborates with pianists Helmut Deutsch, Sholto Kynoch, Daniel Heide, and Jan Philip Schulze. Her recent album LOVE AND LET DIE demonstrates her range from Schubert to Berio. Recital engagements have taken her to the Konzerthaus Wien, Oper Frankfurt, Zürich, Bayreuth, Budapest, Madrid, Barcelona, the Oxford Lieder Festival, and London’s Wigmore Hall.

She studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, is a scholarship recipient of the German Stage Association, the Jütting Foundation Stendal, and the Richard Wagner Association, and winner of the 2017 Anneliese Rothenberger Competition.

09/2025

Bizet, Georges

• Carmen Frasquita

Britten, Benjamin

• The Turn of the Screw Governess

Débussy, Claude

• Pelléas et Mélisande Mélisande

Dvořák, Antonín Leopold

• Rusalka 1. wood sprite

Donizetti, Gaetano

• Don Pasquale Norina

Fioravanti, Valentino

• Le cantatrici villane Nunziella

Franck, César

• Hulda Thordis

Handel, George Frideric

• Tamerlano Asteria
• Teseo Clizia
• Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno Bellezza
• Alcina Morgana

Hiller, Wilfried

• Der Flaschengeist Kokua

Humperdinck, Engelbert

• Hansel and Gretel Gretel, Sandman, Dewman

Janáček, Leoš

• The Cunning Little Vixen Sharp Ears, the Vixen

Kühr, Gerd

• Stallerhof Beppi

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

• The Magic Flute Pamina, Papagena
• The Marriage of Figaro Susanna
• Don Giovanni Zerlina
• Così fan tutte Despina
• La clemenza di Tito Servilia
• La finta giardiniera Serpetta
• La finta semplice Rosina
• Apollo et Hyacinth Melia

Nicolai, Otto

• The Merry Wives of Windsor Anna Reich

Puccini, Giacomo

• La Bohème Musetta
• Gianni Schicchi Lauretta

Purcell, Henry

• Dido and Aenaeas Belinda

Strasnoy, Oscar

• Le Bal Antoinette

Strauss, Richard

• The Knight of the Rose Sophie

Strauss, Johann

• The Bat Adele

Stravinsky, Igor

• The Rake's Progress Anne Truelove

Telemann, Georg Philipp

• Orpheus Eurydike

Turnage, Mark Anthony

• Coraline Ghostchild

Verdi, Giuseppe

• Falstaff Nanetta

Wagner, Richard

• Siegfried The woodbird

Weber, Carl Maria von

• The Marksman Ännchen

Weill, Kurt

• The Silver Lake Fennimore
• Down in the Valley Jenny
• The Threepenny Opera Polly Peachum

BACH, Johann Sebastian

• St. Mark Passion BWV 247
• St. John Passion BWV 245
• Christmas oratoria BWV 248
• Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten „Wedding Cantata", BWV 202
• Actus tragicus, BWV 106
• Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, BWV 10

BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van

• Missa C-Major, op. 86

BUXTEHUDE, Dieterich

• Lobet, Christen, euren Heiland, BuxWV 68

DIABELLI, Anton

• Missa pastorale F-Major op 147

Fauré, Gabriel

• Requiem, op 48

HANDEL , George Frideric

• Messiah HWV 56

HAYDN, Joseph

• The Creation
• Missa Sancti Bernardi de Offida ("Heiligmesse") "
• Small Organ Solo Mass
• Missa Cellensis in C, no. 8
• Missa in B, no. 12 ("Theresienmesse")
• Missa in tempore belli in C, no. 9

HERZOGENBERG, Heinrich von

• Die Geburt Christi, op 90

MAHLER, Gustav

• Symphony no.. 4: Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden soprano

MAYR, Johann Simon

• Missa in F-Major
• Saffo
• Jacob a Labano fugiens
• Requiem Grande soprano 2

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus

• c-minor Mass, K 427 soprano 1
• Exsultate, jubilate, K 165
• Requiem, K 626
• Missa brevis in C "Spaur-Messe“ K 258
• Missa brevis "Spatzenmesse", K 220
• Schon lacht der holde Frühling. K 580
• Vesperae solennes de Confessore, K 339

ORFF, Carl

• Carmina Burana

PERGOLESI, Giovanni Battista

• Stabat mater

Rossini, Gioachino

• Petite messe solennelle

SCHUBERT , Franz

• Mass no. 2 in G major D167
• Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D 968

SIBELIUS, Jean

• Luonnotar, op.70

VIVALDI, Antonio

• Gloria in D, RV 589

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