Performance Database

Catherine Foster is one of the leading dramatic sopranos worldwide and has set herself apart internationally through her work with the Wagnerian repertoire. She is considered one of the most important soloists to have appeared over the last decade at the Bayreuth Festival and it is telling that she performed not just Isolde, but also Brünnhilde in both Götterdämmerung and Die Walküre in the 2023 festival.

So far In the 2023/24 season Catherine has appeared in the title role of Puccini’s Turandot at the Hamburg State Opera, Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, Opéra de Dijon, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.  Further season highlights include Isolde in Tristan und Isolde in Barrie Kosky’s critically acclaimed production in Essen (for special gala performances celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Essener Philharmoniker), as well as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre in Greek National Opera’s first-ever staging of the work. A high point of her summer festival season will be her return to the prestigious Bayreuth Festival as Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle there under the baton of Simone Young.

Recently in the 2022/23 season Catherine’s notable house debut at the Royal Opera House as Turandot in London under the musical direction of Antonio Pappano was received with great acclaim and she  was  celebrated in this role at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein for her interpretation conducted by Axel Kober. As Brunnhilde Catherine Foster has also had sensational successes in Wagner’s Ring cycle with the Dresden Philharmonic under the baton of Marek Janowski, at the MüPa Budapest Wagner Days under Ádám Fischer and at the 2023 Bayreuth Festival with Pietari Inkinen conducting. As Isolde Catherine could be heard most recently under the baton of Semyon Bychkov in Madrid, Constantine Trinks in Naples, and Marcus Poschner in Bayreuth and as Elektra in her Australian debut with Victorian Opera with Richard Mills conducting, Hamburg Staatsoper in Dimitri Tcherniakov’s production under Kent Nagano and at the Deutsche oper Berlin with Alex Soddy.

Catherine Foster regularly collaborates with distinguished conductors such as Simone Young, Marek Janowski, Axel Kober, Adam Fischer, Pietari Inkinen, Phillip Auguin, Kent Nagano, Alexander Soddy, Sir Donald Runnicles, Semyon Bychkov, Juraj Valchua, Dan Ettinger, Hartmut Hähnchen, and Kirill Petrenko, at the world’s most renowned opera houses, including Washington, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bologna, Barcelona, Madrid, Budapest, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Dresden, Frankfurt, Royal Opera house London, Riga, Athens, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich.

To celebrate her extraordinary international accomplishments, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire awarded Catherine Foster an Honorary Fellowship in 2014. Furthermore, she was presented with the prestigious Reginald Goodall Prize by the London Wagner Society for her outstanding dedication to the music of Richard Wagner.