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

Munich-born soprano Katharina Ruckgaber‘s highlights of the 2026/27 season include performances as Gretchen in Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble under Thomas Hengelbrock at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and the Philharmonie Luxembourg. Earlier in the season, she returns to Stadttheater Klagenfurt as Anna Reich in a new production conducted by Chin-Chao Lin. Her concert engagements also include performances of Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Imogen Cooper at London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as several appearances at the Oxford International Song Festival. During the season, she will also appear in an opera gala at the Berlin Philharmonie and make her debut at Munich’s Isarphilharmonie.

During the 2025/26 season, she was acclaimed at the 2026 Handel Festival Halle for the title role in Handel’s Talestri under Attilio Cremonesi. She also enjoyed great success at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Ghent and Antwerp in the new production of Don Giovanni conducted by Francesco Corti. Her portrayal of Ännchen in Weber’s The Marksman at the Bregenz Festival in 2024 and 2025 earned her a nomination for the 2025 Austrian Music Theatre Award. Following New Year’s concerts featuring excerpts from Viennese operettas in Thessaloniki in early 2025, she was immediately re-invited for the current season to perform Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III in concert and to participate in a recording of Fritz Kreisler’s Sissy.

In the 2024/25 season, Katharina Ruckgaber celebrated great success as Beppi in Gerd Kühr’s opera Stallerhof at Stadttheater Klagenfurt. She then made her Canadian debut in a series of New Year’s operetta concerts, followed by a last-minute jump-in as Musetta (La Bohème) at Komische Oper Berlin.

The soprano also celebrated a number of important 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.

Recent highlights have included engagements as Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at Nationaltheater Mannheim, Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the ClassicAnd Festival in Andorra, and her debut as Galatea in Acis and Galatea with the Kammerakademie Potsdam. Other notable concert appearances have taken her to the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Berlin Philharmonie, and to Bilbao for performances with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra.

Katharina Ruckgaber has appeared at Oper Zürich in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Coraline, at Theater an der Wien, Staatstheater Darmstadt, and Gärtnerplatztheater Munich. An active concert performer, she has sung with the Orchestre National de France in Paris, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, at the Konzerthaus Berlin under Iván Fischer, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, in Moscow, at the Cologne Philharmonie, and on several occasions at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg – like in 2022 as Ännchen in René Jacobs’ acclaimed The Marksman tour with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.

Immediately after completing her studies, she joined the Opera Studio of Oper Frankfurt and subsequently became a member of the ensemble at Theater Freiburg, where she remained until 2023. There she appeared in numerous leading lyric soprano roles, including Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), the Vixen (The Cunning Little Vixen), Musetta (La Bohème), and Nanetta (Falstaff). Her interpretation of Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande was hailed by the press as the “highlight of the season” (Neue Musikzeitung / Der neue Merker, July 2019).

A passionate recital artist, the award-winning soprano collaborates closely with pianists Helmut Deutsch, Sholto Kynoch, Daniel Heide, and Jan Philip Schulze. Her album LOVE AND LET DIE showcases the breadth of her repertoire, ranging from Schubert to Berio. Her recital engagements have taken her to the Konzerthaus Vienna, Oper Frankfurt, Zurich, Bayreuth, Budapest, Madrid, Barcelona, the Oxford Lieder Festival, and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Katharina Ruckgaber studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. She has received scholarships from the German Stage Association (Deutscher Bühnenverein), the Jütting Foundation Stendal, and the Richard Wagner Association, and was awarded first prize at the Anneliese Rothenberger Competition in 2017.

07/2026

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, Johann

• The Bat Adele

Strauss, Richard

• The Knight of the Rose Sophie

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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