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Opera News calls her “a natural actress…with thrilling, laser-like focus” and “luminous tone.” Opera magazine praises her “stunningly rich mezzo.” With a career that takes her throughout the U.S. and Europe, the “powerhouse” mezzo-soprano Katharine Goeldner is recognized as one of today’s finest artists.
Katharine returned this season to her native Iowa, where she was heard in Mahler’s Das Lied von
der Erde with the University of Iowa Symphony. She performed the Verdi Requiem with the Jacksonville Symphony, Fricka in Die Walküre in Augsburg, Germany, Brigitta in Die tote Stadt in Toulouse, France, and reprised her triumphant Ma Joad at Michigan Opera Theatre.
Recent performances include her Minnesota Orchestra debut as Herodias in Richard Strauss' Salome; Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Orchestra Iowa; Dalila in Samson et Dalila at Virginia Opera and
Amneris in Aida at Utah Opera. She created the role of Jackie Onassis in David T. Little and
Royce Vavrek’s JFK, and starred at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Ma Joad in the premiere of the revised version of Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie's The Grapes of Wrath.
With bull’s-eye pitch and exquisitely controlled dynamics, Goeldner’s voice shines throughout, with her upper register occasionally
blasting through with great dramatic effect...
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Andy Garrigue
Encoremichigan.com’s annual Wilde Awards honored Katharine with the David DiChiera award for best performance in an opera for her performances as Ma Joad in
The Grapes of Wrath at Michigan Opera Theatre.
BEST PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERA
Encoremichigan.com’s annual Wilde Awards honored Katharine with the David DiChiera award for best performance in an opera for her performances as Ma Joad in
The Grapes of Wrath at Michigan Opera Theatre.
On February 23, 2019, Katharine jumped in as the Marquise of Berkenfield in La fille du Regiment halfway through Act 1. Katharine shared the stage with Kathleen Turner (Duchess of Krakenthorp), Pretty Yende (Marie), Javier Camarena (Tonio), Maurizio Muraro (Sulpice), and was conducted by Enrique Mazzola.
Katharine mader her long-awaited role debut as Fricka in "Die Walküre" with the Staatstheater Augsburg in April 2019.
The star-studded cast included
Gerhard Siegel (Siegmund), KS Walter Fink (Hunding), Johan Reuter (Wotan),
Jennifer Holloway (Sieglinde) and
Iréne Theorin (Brünnhilde).
She takes some thrilling risks, pushing the
voice for dramatic effect, and the results are often electrifying.
But Katharine can also draw you in with sustained, floated pianissimi,
so private and delicate that she breaks your heart.
It is not often we are privileged to witness such a
perfect marriage of artist and role.
Opera Today, James Sohre
