Annette Dasch (born 24 March 1976) is a German soprano. She has performed in opera and concerts internationally, often portraying Mozart characters such as Elvira in Don Giovanni at La Scala, Aminta in Il re pastore at the Salzburg Festival, and Electra in Idomeneo at the reopening of the Cuvilliés Theatre in 2008. She made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Elsa in Lohengrin in 2010.
Life and career Born in West Berlin, Dasch studied voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Josef Loibl.
She made her debut at the Bavarian State Opera as the Gänsemagd (Goose girl) in Humperdinck's Königskinder, at La Scala as Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, at the Salzburg Festival 2006 as Aminta in his Il re pastore, staged and conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock,Salzburg Festival Archive 2006 and at the Paris Opera as Antonia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann.Annette Dasch on Bach Cantatas website Her performance of Schumann's Genoveva at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden under Marc Piollet was recorded live in 2006.Schumann: Genoveva – Opera in Four Acts, Op. 81 – 2CD on Premiere Classical In 2007 she sang Elvira at the Berlin State Opera under Daniel Barenboim.Annette Dasch at New York Philharmonic She appeared in Salzburg in 2007 as Haydn's Armida, staged by Christof Loy,Salzburg Festival Archive 2007 and in 2008 as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.Salzburg Festival Archive 2008 She appeared as Electra in Mozart's Idomeneo, staged by Dieter Dorn and conducted by Kent Nagano, in the reopening in June 2008 of the Cuvilliés Theatre where the opera had been first performed in 1781.Idomeneo Bayerische Staatsoper, Biographies Idomeneo was performed by John Mark Ainsley and Ilia by Juliane Banse. Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2009 was the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Fabio Luisi.Pratfalls at the Palace, Upstairs or Downstairs review by Steve Smith in The New York Times, 5 November 2009 Her debut at the Bayreuth Festival as Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, staged by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by Andris Nelsons, in the opening night 25 July 2010.
On the concert stage she appeared at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Mendelssohn's Elijah with Seiji Ozawa. She sang in Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. With the Gächinger Kantorei and the New York Philharmonic under Helmuth Rilling she appeared in Avery Fisher Hall in Handel's Messiah in 2009.Messiah New York Philharmonic, 2009A Period-Style Taste of a Holiday-Season Staple review by Vivian Schweitzer in The New York Times, 16 December 2009
In December 2014, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera in the role of Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Dasch is on the jury of the International Song Competition "Das Lied" chaired by Thomas Quasthoff.Das Lied The Jury for 2011 Composer Richard Beaudoin has dedicated two works to her.Richard Beaudoin: Works , accessed 10 January 2011
She has a regular show called "Annette's Dasch-Salon" in Berlin, playing with the term "Waschsalon" (laundromat).Vom Urlaub träumen ist auch okay (It's also ok to dream of vacation) Interview in FAZ, 10 June 2008 (in German) Dasch voiced Madame de Garderobe in the German dubbing of the 2017 film Beauty and the Beast.
She replaced Anna Netrebko, who withdrew due to exhaustion, as Elsa in Lohengrin at the 2019 Bayreuth Festival. In 2025, she sung and acted Dschilli Bey in Eine Frau von Format, a "forgotten" operetta by Michael Krasznay-Krausz recreated in the Oper Köln.
Personal life In 2011, Dasch married Austrian baritone Daniel Schmutzhard. They have two children, Fanny and Hans.
Recordings Carl Orff: Carmina Burana – Gert Henning-Jensen, Zeljko Lucic, Orfeón Donostiarra, hr-Sinfonieorchester, conductor Hugh Wolff, Rheingau Musik Festival live in Eberbach Abbey, 2002 Mozart: Il re pastore – Marlis Petersen, Krešimir Špicer, Arpiné Rahdjian, Andreas Karasiak, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, conductor Thomas Hengelbrock, Deutsche Grammophon, DVD 2006 Britten: War Requiem – James Taylor, Christian Gerhaher, Festivalensemble Stuttgart, conductor Helmuth Rilling, hänssler classic, September 2008 Haydn: Die Schöpfung – Annette Dasch, Christoph Strehl, Thomas Quasthoff and Vienna Chamber Choir and Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra conducted by Ádám Fischer, Euroarts DVD 2009
References
External links archived on 1 March 2013 Annette Dasch IAAC International Artists Management Our guest on 04.10.2009 Annette Dasch, Opera Singer Deutsche Welle, 2009 (in German) Annette Dasch Volksoper 2026 Maurer, Andreas: Die Sopranistin Annette Dasch (in German) SWR 24 March 2026