About
German soprano Irmgard Vilsmaier made her Royal Opera debut in the 2010/11 Season singing Gertrud (Hänsel und Gretel). She returns in the 2018/19 Season as Second Norn (Götterdämmerung).
Vilsmaier was born in Niederbayern, studied at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium in Nuremberg and at the Opera Studio of Bavarian State Opera and began her career as a member of Brigitte Fassbaender’s Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck. She has sung for companies including Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Hamburg State Opera, Stuttgart State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Vienna Volksoper, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Liceu, Barcelona, Estonian National Opera, Hungarian State Opera, Dutch National Opera, Opera Vlaanderen and for the Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Reinsberg and Bayreuth festivals. Her repertory includes Ortrud (Lohengrin), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Sieglinde and Gerhilde (Die Walküre), Brünnhilde, Waltraute and Ortlinde (Die Walküre), Brünnhilde (Der Ring an einem Abend), Elektra, Chrysothemis and Overseer (Elektra), Marianne Leitmetzerin (Der Rosenkavalier), Ghita (Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg), Gertrud and Witch (Hänsel und Gretel), Margret (Wozzeck) and Fortune-Teller (Arabella).
Vilsmaier has also performed a variety of operas in concert, with appearances including Brünnhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen) in Seoul and Marianne Leitmetzerin (Der Rosenkavalier) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.