Master Class

Lydia Rathkolb

A native of Vienna, she graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, as well as the Music and Performing Arts private University Vienna, with further studies in Milano. At the University of Vienna she holds a PhD in musicology and journalism with a dissertation on Herbert von Karajan.

Lydia made her debut at the Vienna State Opera in Mozart's Magic Flute. As a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble, she has sung a wide repertoire by WA Mozart to Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, roles in Italian, Russian and French, as well as contemporary operas and world premieres in over 60 roles and more than 300 performances and has taken part in several guest tours of the State Opera in Japan.

She has sung with great success at Vienna State Opera in numerous premiere series and under conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Franz Welser-Möst, Marco Armiliato, M.-W. Chung, Jesus López-Cobos, Ingo Metzmacher, Michael Boder, James Conlon, Graeme Jenkins, Philippe Auguin, Peter Schneider, Leopold Hager, Evelino Pidó, Bertrand de Billy, and Frédéric Chaslin, and has worked with stage directors such as Otto Schenk, Sven Bechtolf, Josef E. Köpplinger, Mariame Clement, Pierre Audi, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, and Alevis Hermanis.

Numerous concerts with soloist ensembles of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Philharmonie de Nice, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic.

She sings and makes guest appearances at opera houses and concert halls such as the Vienna State Opera, Vienna Volksoper, Lincoln Center/Avery Fisher Hall NY, Royal Albert Hall London, Kimmel Center for Performing Arts Philadelphia, Kennedy Center Washington DC, the Vienna Musikverein, the Sofia Opera, the Nice Opera, the Prague and Brno Operas, Berlin, Basel, Lisbon, Tel Aviv, the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Schwetzingen, Bregenz, Heidelberg, and the Vienna Konzerthaus.

As a coloratura soprano she sang the Queen of the Night and Pamina in Mozart's Magic Flute, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Rosina in Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Norina in Don Pasquale, Verdi's La Traviata, Rigoletto, Olympia and Antonia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, as well as numerous title roles in operettas such as Rosalinde in J. Strauss's Fledermaus, The Merry Widow and Countess Mariza.

At the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Vienna State Opera in 2019, she sang in The Barber of Seville (with Juan Diego Florez) and in the premiere of Gottfried von Einem's Danton's Tod. Numerous solo recitals and chamber music as well as oratorios and sacral music take her to London, Paris, New York, Washington, DC, Berkeley California, Tokyo, Vienna, Hong Kong, Beijing.

Lydia taught solo singing, vocal technique and interpretation at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (MUK)/Conservatory and teaches international master classes in Opera, Operetta and Lied at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts with Vienna Musikseminar since many years, focusing on vocal technique, interpretation, language, and mental performance training. She is also a certified Qi Gong teacher. As a visiting professor for singing and opera she gives master classes at the St. Gellert Music Academy in Szeged, Hungary. She teaches at the University of Vienna, at Princeton University and gives international seminars and workshops specialized on coloratura vocal technique and interpretation.

Languages ​​of instruction: German, English