The German soprano/mezzo-soprano, Carmen Fuggiss, grew up in Emmendingen and then in Freiburg, where she graduated from high school. At the age of 15 she sang in the Chor der Städtischen Bühnen Freiburg. During this time she took part in the ZDF gala evening in 1983. She then began studying at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe and Musikhochschule Frankfurt and studied with Hanna Ludwig at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She graduated in the subjects of music education, singing, piano and opera. After her studies, she won various prizes in well-known singing competitions, including the national singing competition.
After graduating, Carmen Fuggiss began her artistic career,. She was engaged at the Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg. Since 1993, she has been engaged at the Niedersächsischen Staatsoper Hannover, Opera guest performances and concert tours have taken her to the most famous stages in the world, including Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Munich, Barcelona, Bilbao, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Lyon, Charlotte (USA); and the festivals in Salzburg, Edinburgh, Vienna, Rome and Brussels. Through her permanent engagements as well as numerous guest performances, she was able to establish herself as a lyric coloratura soprano with a focus on the roles of W.A. Mozart and Richard Strauss. In addition, she made a name for herself in roles in the Italian repertire. Her most important operatic roles include Pamina in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Konstanze in W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Lucia in Lucia di Lammeroor, Gilda in G. Verdi's Rigoletto, Sophie in R. Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, Zerbinetta in Adriadne auf Naxos. Alban Berg's Lulu and Aribert Reimann's Melusine are two of her brilliant roles in new music. The conductors she has worked with include Semyon Bychkov, Michael Gielen, Fabio Luisi, Ingo Metzmacher, Kent Nagano, Heinrich Schiff, Sir Georg Solti, Hubert Soudant, Marcello Viotti, and Lothar Zagrosek.
Carmen Fuggiss has recently expanded her repertoire enormously by conceiving programs with specific themes in which classical songs and arias stand alongside chansons, hits and jazz. Numerous radio and television productions show her versatility in a repertoire that ranges from the Middle Ages to the modern age, to jazz and chansons. |