Husum-born German and with Syrian roots, Nadja Mchantaf began her career as a successful competition dancer, in which she won numerous championships, before turning to singing. She studied voice at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig with Prof. Regina Werner-Dietrich. She continued her studies with KS Brigitte Eisenfeld in Berlin.

 

Nadja Mchantaf began her opera career in 2009 as a member of the Semperoper Dresden ensemble. Here she enjoyed great success with the title role in the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s last opera ‘Gisela!’. In the following years, she took on numerous lyric soprano roles, including Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Musetta (La bohème), Micaëla (Carmen), Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Venus (King Arthur), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Princess Eudoxie (La juive), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Valencienne (Die lustige Witwe), Tebaldo (Don Carlos), 5. Magd (Elektra – CD recording on Deutsche Grammophon), Lucilla (Il tutore), Lidochka (Moscow, Cheryomushki) and Morgana (Alcina).

 

In 2016, chief director and then artistic director Barrie Kosky brought Nadja Mchantaf to the Komische Oper Berlin, where she was a permanent member of the ensemble until 2024. Here she made her debut in the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon under the direction of Damiano Michieletto and the musical direction of Henrik Nánási. Other outstanding role portraits at this house were Rusalka (Rusalka), Tatjana (Eugene Onegin), Mimì (La bohème), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Pamina (The Magic Flute), The Child (L’enfant et les sortilèges), Erinice (Zoroastre), Micaëla (Carmen), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Saffi (Der Zigeunerbaron), Jenny Hill (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) and Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice). She made her debut in the Mozart roles of Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte) and Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro) in the new productions directed by Kirill Serebrennikov.

 

Guest engagements have taken Nadja Mchantaf to the Teatro La Fenice in Venice as Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow), to the Teatro Regio di Parma as Jenny Hill (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny) and to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto as Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice). She also performed with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon as a soloist at the New Year’s Concert and made guest appearances at the Laizhalle Hamburg, Frankfurt Opera, Leipzig Opera, Stuttgart State Opera, Hanover State Opera, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Shanghai Symphony and the Beijing Music Festival.

 

In 2023, Nadja Mchantaf sang her first Wagner role, Freia (Das Rheingold), under the baton of Kent Nagano in a historically informed performance practice with Concerto Köln and the Dresdner Musikfestspiel Orchester in Dresden, Cologne, Ravello and Lucerne. In summer 2024, she was heard at the Edinburgh Festival as Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro).

 

The versatile artist has developed as well a broad repertoire that includes both concert and lied repertoire. She has worked with conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Riccardo Frizza, Kent Nagano, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Stefano Montanari, Peter Schneider, Constantin Trinks, Asher Fisch, Ludwig Güttler, Tomás Netopil, Frédéric Chaslin and Stefan Soltesz.

 

In the 2025/26 season, Nadja Mchantaf will appear as Valencienne (Die lustige Witwe) and Ottilie in Jan Philipp Gloger’s new production of Im weißen Rößl at the Volksoper Wien, Saffi in the world premiere of the ‘Der Zigeunerbaron’ remake Das Lied vom Rand der Welt by Musicbanda Franui at the Johann Strauss 2025 Vienna Festival and as Donna Anna at the Teatro dell’opera di Roma.