BIOGRAPHY
Ulrike Mayer’s velvety, dark mezzo-soprano voice is full of lyric warmth and is accompanied by an outstanding dramatic ability. In recent years she has established herself as a versatile soloist and has performed with such opera houses as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Opéra de Bastille, the Opéra Comique, the Ruhrtriennale Festival and the Bregenz Festival.
As an ensemble member with Theater Bremen she frequently taken on important roles in her fach, such as Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, Nerone in Monteverdi's L' incoronazione di Poppea, Harper Pitt in Eötvös' Angels in America, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Leokadja Begbick in Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s beloved opera Hänsel und Gretel, the title roles in Bizet’s Carmen as well as Händel’s Oreste, Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ruggiero in Händel’s Alcina and Lazuli in and Charbrier’s L’Étoile.
During her time with Theater Bremen, she has also had guest engagements with the Grand Théatre du Luxembourg, the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau and the Scottish National Opera, where she was nominated for Young Singer of the Year Award in 2011 by Opernwelt Magazine for her debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro.
In the 2023/24 season with Theater Bremen, Ulrike can be seen performing two exciting roles: Sesto in a Marco Storman's new staging of La clemenza di Tito by W. A. Mozart with conductor Sasha Yankevych and Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach with director Frank Hilbrich and conductor William Kelley.
Born and raised in Stuttgart, Ulrike studied singing with Thomas Quasthoff at the Academy of Music in Detmold as well as with Klesie Kelly at the Academy of Music in Cologne, where she completed her studies with the concert exam. Over the course of her career, she has been awarded a number of grants and prizes. She was a first-place winner at the Euriade Vocal Concours in Holland and has been a prize-winner at both the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg Competition and the German National Competition for Singing.
Along with her vast experience on the operatic stage, Ms. Mayer is also quite at home as a concert soloist and recitalist, having performed an extensive repertoire of oratorio and song both in Germany and abroad. She has performed recitals at the German embassies of Albania and Lithuania, at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, and has performed in a staged song program of Mozart songs with the Mannheim Summer Mozart Festival. As part of the reopening celebration for the famous Frauenkirche in Dresden, she performed in Siegfried Matthus’ Te Deum under the baton of Kurt Masur.
Two of her most beloved works are both of Bach’s Passions, which she has sung numerous times in different concert halls and churches. Another frequently-performed work in her concert repertoire is the second soprano soloist in the Great Mass in C Minor by Mozart, which she has performed on tour in Colombia with Andreas Schüller and the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional, in France with Sascha Goetzel and the Orchestre national des pays de la Loire, and in Stuttgart with Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Bachakademie Stuttgart.
She performs regularly at such places as the Berlin Concert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Auditorio Nacional de Musica Madrid, the Weimar Festival of the Arts, the Tage Alter Musik Festival in Regensburg, and the Telemann Festival in Magdeburg, and with well-known and respected orchestras (the SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, the Dresden Philharmoniker, the Münchener Symphoniker, the Sønderjyllands Simfonieorkester, the Qatar Philharmomic Orchestra, Lautten Compagney in Berlin and the Academy of Early Music in Berlin) with such conductors as Kurt Masur, Alessandro de Marchi, Andreas Spering, Will Humburg, Steven Sloane, Markus Poschner, and Hartmut Haenchen.
REPERTOIRE
Opera
A. BERG
Gymnasiast, Groom, Garderobiere (dt.) »Lulu« Theater Bremen
G. BIZET
Carmen (franz.) »Carmen« Philharmonie Berlin, Theater Bremen
E. CHABRIER
Lazuli (franz.) »Étoile« Theater Bremen
G. DONIZETTI
Gianetta (ital.) »L'Elisir d'Amore« Theater Magdeburg, Theater Bremen
P. EÖTVÖS
Harper Pitt/Ethel Rosenberg (engl.) »Angels in America« Theater Bremen
CHR. W. GLUCK
Orfeo (ital.) »Orfeo ed Euridice« HfM Detmold
Orpheus (dt.) »Orpheus und Eurydike« Theater Magdeburg
G. F. HÄNDEL
Ruggiero (ital.) »Alcina« Markgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth, Theater Bremen
Rinaldo (ital.) »Rinaldo« Lautten Compagney Berlin
Oreste (ital.) »Oreste« Theater Bremen
J. HERMAN
Irene Molloy (dt.) »Hello, Dolly!« Theater Bremen
E. HUMPERDINCK
Hänsel (dt.) »Hänsel und Gretel« Staatstheater Cottbus, Qatar Philh. Orchestra, Theater Magdeburg, Theater Bremen
L. JANÁCEK
Försterin/Eule (tschech.) »Das schlaue Füchslein« Theater Bremen
Richterin (tschech.) »Jenufa« Theater Bremen
F. LOEWE
Eliza Doolittle (dt.) »My Fair Lady« Hans Otto Theater Potsdam, Theater Magdeburg
B. MARTINU
Le petit Arabe, Le chiromancien, Le chasseur de Pigall's (franz.) »Juliette« Theater Bremen
W. A. MOZART
Marcellina (ital.) »Le nozze di Figaro« HfM Detmold, Theater Pforzheim, Theater Bremen
Cherubino (ital.) »Le nozze di Figaro« Scottish Opera, Bochumer Symphoniker, Theater Bremen
Dorabella (ital.) »Così fan tutte« Theater Magdeburg, Anhaltisches Theater Dessau, Theater Bremen
Idamante (ital.) »Idomeneo« Theater Magdeburg
2. Dame »Zauberflöte« Theater Magdeburg, Theater Bremen
J. MASSENET
Dorothée (dt.) »Cendrillon« HfM Detmold
S. MATTHUS
Cornet »Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornet Christoph Rilke« Deutsche Oper Berlin
C. MONTEVERDI
Nerone (ital.) »L'incoronazione di Poppea« Theater Bremen
M. MUSSORGSKY
Fjodor (dt.) »Boris Godunow« Theater Magdeburg
J. OFFENBACH
Périchole (dt.) »La Périchole« Anhaltisches Theater Dessau
G. PUCCINI
Suzuki (ital.) »Madama Butterfly« HfM Detmold
La Zelatrice (ital.) »Suor Angelica« HfM Detmold
La Frugola/ Ciesca (ital.) »Il Tabarro/ Gianni Schicchi« Theater Bremen
G. ROSSINI
Rosina (ital.) »Il barbiere di Siviglia« Theater Bremen, Mainfrankentheater Würzburg
S. SCIARRINO
Amme (ital.) »Da gelo a gelo« Musikfestspiele Schwetzingen
D. SCHOSTAKOWITSCH
Sonjetka (dt./ russisch) »Lady Macbeth von Mzensk« Theater Magdeburg, Theater Bremen
I. STRAWINSKY
Mother Goose (engl.) »Rake's progress« Theater Bremen
J. STRAUSS
Barbara »Eine Nacht in Venedig« Theater Magdeburg
Orlofsky »Die Fledermaus« Theater Bremen
R. STRAUSS
Page »Salome« Theater Magdeburg, Opéra de Bastille Paris
Komponist «Ariadne auf Naxos« Theater Bremen
G. PH. TELEMANN
Pedrillo (dt.) »Don Quichotte« Theater Magdeburg
Flavius (dt.) »Flavius Bertaridus« Theater Magdeburg, Hamburgische Staatsoper
P. I. TSCHAIKOWSKY
Olga (dt.) »Eugen Onegin« Theater Magdeburg
A. VIVALDI
Holofernes (Latein) »Juditha triumphans« Staatstheater Mainz, Schloss Rheinsberg
Alcina (ital.) »Orlando furioso« Theater Magdeburg
G. VERDI
Maddalena (ital.) »Rigoletto« Theater Magdeburg
Flora Bevoix (ital.) »La Traviata« Theater Bremen
R. WAGNER
Magdalena »Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg« Theater Bremen
K. WEILL
Venus / Molly (dt./engl.) »One touch of Venus« Anhaltisches Theater Dessau
Leokadja Begbick (dt.) »Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny« Theater Bremen
M. YESTON
Kate McGowen (dt.) »Titanic« Theater Magdeburg
Oratorio
J. S. BACH
Weihnachtsoratorium
Johannespassion
Matthäuspassion
Hohe Messe in h-Moll
Himmelfahrtsoratorium
Magnificat D-Dur
Kantate BWV 169 »Gott soll allein mein Herze haben«
Kantate BWV 114 »Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost«
Kantate BWV 78 »Jesu, der Du meine Seele«
Kantate BWV 93 »Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten«
Kantate BWV 60 »O Ewigkeit, Du Donnerwort«
Kantate BWV 139 »Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott«
L. v. BEETHOVEN
Grosse Messe in C-Dur op. 86
Missa solemnis
L. BERNSTEIN
Chichester Psalms
L. BOULANGER
Du fond de l'abime
M. BRUCH
Die Glocke
A. BRUCKNER
Te Deum
G. CARISSIMI
Jephte
A. DVORÁK
Messe D-Dur op. 86
E. ELGAR
Sea Pictures
G. F. HÄNDEL
Solomon HWV 67 (Solomon) (engl.)
The Messiah
Dixit Dominus
Dettinger Te Deum
Kantate »Lungi da me, pensier tiranno!«
J. HAYDN
Missa in tempore belli (Paukenmesse)
Salve regina
A. HONEGGER
Le roi David
K. KEMPTER
Pastoralmesse in G op. 24
G. MAHLER
2. Symphonie
D. MANICKE
Drei kleine Geistliche Konzerte
S. MATTHUS
De vacuo spatio
Te Deum
F. MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY
Elias
Paulus
W. A. MOZART
Grosse Messe in c-Moll KV 427
Krönungsmesse
Orgelmesse
Requiem
G. PERGOLESI
Stabat mater
G. ROSSINI
Petite Messe solennelle
C. SAINT-SAËNS
Oratorio de Noël
Messe op. 4
A. SCARLATTI
Salve Regina
J. H. SCHEIN
Opella Nova
H. SCHÜTZ
Cantiones sacrae
Kleine geistliche Konzerte 1636/1639
Fili mi, Absalon
I. STRAWINSKY
Les noces (russisch)
G. PH. TELEMANN
Johannespassion 1733
Matthäus-Passion 1730
Matthäus-Passion 1750
Matthäus-Passion 1746
G. VERDI
Ave Maria
A. VIVALDI
Gloria D-Dur
Magnificat
Kantate »Cessate, omai cessate«