Gabriele Schnaut started her operatic career as a mezzo-soprano in 1976 and changed to dramatic soprano in 1985. She has appeared on nearly all internationally important scenes including New York, Milan, London, Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Brussels, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and the Salzburg Festival. Guest performances led her to San Francisco, Chicago and Tokyo. In 1977 Schnaut made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival singing far more than one hundred performances until the year 2000 (Ortrud, Sieglinde, Brünnhilde, 2./3.Norn, Waltraute).

She performed these and more major parts such as Elektra, Isolde, Kundry, Venus and besides the Wagner roles also Tosca, Leonore/Fidelio, Santuzza, Turandot and Färberin/Frau ohne Schatten. Since 2006 she has enlarged her repertoire by roles like Emilia Marty, Küsterin/Jenufa, Klytämnestra, Herodias.

She recorded works by composers of the 20th century and appeared in the premieres of operas by Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann.

Gabriele Schnaut was a professor of voice at the University of Performing Arts in Berlin from 2005 – 2014.

She was appointed Kammersängerin by the Bavarian Minister of Culture and by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. She is also a recipient of the Bavarian Order of Merit.

Recent highlights: Herodias in Strauss’ Salome at the Los Angeles Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and a concert performance of Jörg Widmann’s Babylon at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.